Howdy, neighbour!

Like most people, our family has had good and bad neighbours. We left a fantastic family behind in Australia when we moved to Singapore. Yesterday a new expat family moved into the apartment next to us. I want to show you the welcoming gift I made for them. But firstly, I want to tell you a bit about my life as an expat.

The life of an expat can be like a double-edged sword. On the one side, you cross paths with many new faces - people from all cultures and walks of life. You can build up great friendships, a blessing when you move to a country with no close friends or family, but then you have to farewell them. They leave for different shores (or vice versa), sometimes without much notice. Such is the expat life.

I have to admit, most of my friends in Singapore are expats. Many of them introduced through friends of friends. The majority of expats that I have come across are very friendly and open to new friendships. Aside from the parents I have met through Ivy's school, I have also met people through websites - Meetup being the main one. Meetup is an international website that is popular in Singapore. It's an online social networking site that facilitates offline get togethers. Basically you find a group that you are interested in, join and attend a 'meet up'. Hopefully you hit it off with someone and then take it from there. A bit like a blind date! I have also met a bunch of fabulous ladies through a mobile phone application called Baby Bump. We chatted online for a few months, mostly about the trials and tribulations of pregnancy and then met up IRL (in real life). The internet has been a good tool for my social life here in Singapore. In comparison, when I lived in Hong Kong twelve years ago, I cut a rather lonely and bored figure. My only friend was my partner and his friends. I couldn't rely on finding friends at work (since I didn't work) and online social networking wasn't big back then (neither was the internet as I recall). I even found it difficult to persue my crafting activities as I had no idea where to get supplies from (where were you when I needed you Etsy?). Lets just say I had a lot of time on my hands, which I filled mostly with travel. Anyway, I digress! 

We recently said farewell to our lovely neighbours from New York, who left for Thailand (they previously lived in Germany). I became quite good friends with the mother as we shared a love of craft and cooking. She taught me how to crochet and I taught her how to sew. These are the going away gifts I made for her and her daughter.

Pin cushion for my friend in traditional Singaporean batik fabric

Hair accessory holder for friend's daughter

And this is the welcoming gift I presented today to our new neighbours from France - homemade bread and jam. I hope they eat bread and jam! I downloaded the gift tags from Fellow Fellow - another Australian blogger living in Singapore, whom I have met IRL! I love Claire's blog, it's full of lovely photography, tutorials, design inspiration and creative things.