If there’s one event I love more than birthdays, it’s the year end festivities of Christmas/NYE/New Year.

I LOVE the smell of fresh pine lingering in the air (hello christmas tree). The shopping for christmas-edition candy. Indulging in christmasy cakes (hello red velvet. hello toffee nut latte) and drinks. The voices of Dean, Frank, Nat and the occassional Mariah & Bublé Christmas renditions being looped on repeat all day. Organizing a party & putting together a Christmas menu.

I love how there’s so much joy and so much merry making that fills the air. Most are in an exceptionally forgiving and courteous mood (though it would be great if it was like that year round), and everyone’s game for some fun. Lots of feasting (yum, yum, yum), toasting (yum, yum, yum), and every legit reason to indulge in some shopping (hello year end sales!) for gifting.

And parties. I love how there’s always a party to go to. To dress up for. To get in theme for. To do a kris kringle for.

So when the cousin and some fun-loving moms asked if I would like to join in organizing a christmas party for kids, I had to say ‘yes’! I’ve been toying with the idea of hosting a cozy christmas first for Liam & friends (will see if I still have time to do that) but with a few already being organized, I wasn’t sure if another similar party would appeal to anyone. Anyhow…

I love kids and seeing them have fun in a party that’s created just for them? Icing on the cake.

The Enchanted Christmas party isn’t going to be a party full of soft play structures and toys to play with. You know where to find them and add them to your list of parties (or ping me if you don’t) :)

But what the Enchanted Christmas Party is going to be…is a magical pop-up party filled with christmas craft activities kids get to be involved in, photo booth fun for the whole family (which will make a great e-greeting card too!), balloon sculptures & goodie bags to take home, good music to boogie to, sweet treats to gobble down, friends to party with, magic performances to wow at and magical snow fun!

Tickets are selling out fast and we’re almost down to selling the the last 15!

Click here to purchase your tickets now. And come say hi too!

Why would people want to have kids in Singapore?

{Read the full article here}

At the rate cabs are increasing their fares, I just may have to opt staying home for most of the 3rd trimester unless the Bo (aka. driver) is available since the traffic on public transportation really sucks these days – people either just walk past and shove your belly, however obvious; or not bother to give you a seat on the bus/train and then continue to squeeze into whatever limited space you have with their work & shopping bags. Granted, there have been nice gestures previously or perhaps it’s just the festive shopping that’s swelling in everyone’s head, social graces have taken a back seat.

It’s ridiculous – first ERP prices go out, then extended peak hours for taxis and now this.

Am sure if COE prices of cars & parking weren’t insanely high, everyone will be opting to drive around instead. But of course – game plan seems to skew people towards taking public transport.

Looks like mother & child outings’ mode of transportation next time will have to be mainly train based. And hopefully, it won’t be breaking down as often as in the past week, and that they will now be prepared for any (future) emergencies.

Remember I mentioned that once upon a time, through the very trying fertility journey, I got to know a community of like-minded (not to mention, awesome) ladies who made me feel less alone with their wit and humour? Well, today I would like to introduce you to one.

Meet Rach, who blogs at Eggs In a Row. And recently, she gave me a little ‘award’ by telling the world out that how much she enjoyed reading my blog (thanks again!!!), which meant big to me because apart from a select few, inclusive mom and J, I didn’t think that the stuff I blog about would actually appeal to anyone else.

She’s one of the few that I look forward to reading on a regular basis because she writes about the realities of life that is so easy to understand yet utterly relatable (unless you’re an absolutely moron who has no struggles on the baby front of course); that I feel a sense of closeness to her despite the miles and oceans between us.

She does her best to be optimistic, which is something I struggled with some months ago before that bfp (I actually wrote quite a bit of pessimistic stuff which are still in my draft folder because I didn’t want my mom to read and feel sad for me then), not to mention funny, adorably thoughtful and does her best to be supportive for those around her.

It’s the 2ww for her now, and I’m anxiously crossing my fingers, toes and rooting that her boobs will only grow bigger & sore for the better; and looking forward to reading her new milestones where I’m sure she’ll include more illustrations like this one.

Do send good vibes her way if you can too! xo.

So ever since I’ve moved in to stay with the husband & family post-Wedding, the mil has only been on 2 overseas trip.

As she’s usually the one who runs the kitchen or rather, her kitchen)& loves to cook (although sometimes the recipe she experiments can end up tasting weird or wrong), I’ve hardly cooked a meal for the husband since marriage. Didn’t help that I used to work late too so it was easier just coming home to a ready home-cooked meal.

The first time mil went for a holiday some year and a half back, I was all geared & excited to show the husband that I could cook, even if only a little. After all, which wife doesn’t want to please her husband’s tummy where possible? But because the pots, pans & ingredients were stacked & stuffed in such difficult-to-find locations (the kitchen is a constant mess and mil is a hoarder as well), I ended up needing most of (my) mom’s help when I attempted 2 dishes (we had a really old, difficult to use stove then so controlling the fire was such an agony).

I remember out of the 3 times I attempted cooking again, it was the first when I saw a horrible face on the husband because my salmon was overdone and I forgot to marinate it. But since then, it has improved and proud to say as of yesterday night (yes, hooray mil is abroad again) – I finally managed my first attempt cooking dinner alone (yes, without any help even from my mom) albeit a simple meal.

It was Yong Tau Foo – a very simple, easy to cook dish which I have been craving for, home-cooked style. (YTF means stuffed beancurd and is a Chinese Hakka dish where ingredients are primarily filled with fish meat). 

I happily went supermarket shopping and here’s what I bought:

- ready pack of yong tau foo

- frozen packet of scallops (because I wanted to eat them too)

- additional yong tau foo such as fried beancurd skin and ‘hock chew’ fishball (fishballs with meat inside them) because they are the husband’s favourite

- small pack of baby chye sim vegetables (to add in last)

- anchovies

- red chilli (if you can’t get the YTF sauce, having red cut chilli & soy sauce as a dip is the next best thing in my opinion)

Preparation:

1. Boil water in a pot

2. Throw in anchovies (aka. ikan billis) and soy beans to make the broth sweeter & tastier

3. Add in YTF ingredients

4. Add in vegetables last

5. Simmer for about 30 minutes to really get the flavour in

6. Dish out and enjoy!

I also accompanied YTF dish with Chinese white rice (I love when the soup soaks the rice), and ngoh hiang (a Singaporean dish of five spice pork rolls wrapped with fried beancurd skin).

Dinner tasted really good (beams). We also had mom over as I cooked a little too much. Suffice to say, both diners enjoyed their meals.

:)

I know…it seems like I may have disappeared for quite a while but I have an absolutely good excuse.

My little munchkin of a godson is back in town for about 8 weeks and I’ve been busy day till night just playing with him, keeping him entertained & happy while his mom (SIL) gets some break time in between.

Its not easy, but very fulfilling…when I see that cheeky little grin or his little arms stretching for me to carry him every morning.

I’ve also been busy catching up lunch with my BR (yay, so happy) as well as with others.

So all is going well at the moment and I promise the moment I have a proper window of me-time, I’d be back blogging again. Or at least post some photos up!

Ever since mom sent me that beautiful email about counting one’s blessings some days back, I’ve been waking up to a totally different beat.

On most mornings, I’d remind myself to thank God that I can even roll out of bed, get all 5 senses working, skip my way to a personal loo and have a wonderful & safe roof over my head.

On mornings I forget, I try to make up for it in the noon thanking God for providing me food for nourishment (when there are others out there who don’t even have food to eat, or choices to make) and giving me my family.

Some nights I’d remind myself to thank God for the beautiful day that I’ve experienced and for the rest I’m about to have when there are others jolting up to every sound they hear in fear for their lives and safety.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is that counting my blessings has helped me see and appreciate life differently. I used to complain & compare a lot more than I do now. About the weather, about getting a new bed, about getting a new home, about wanting to travel to somewhere…without realizing that I’m already more blessed than a lot of others in many other ways. Even just being able to get through a day using all 5 senses is a huge blessing in itself.

Have you counted your blessings yet?

Ducky sent us all a Facebook message this arvo, reminding us to think of ways to sabotage her groom & gang in 3 weeks’ time. And apart from ensuring her that it will definitely happen (the sabotaging of course) and saying friendly ‘hi’ to the rest of her selected bridesmaids – I knew that I needed to start searching for Ducky’s choice of theme (purple) for my bridesmaids dress pronto. I’ve been putting on an obscene number of weight which meant I couldn’t fit into any existing dress and I didn’t have a big budget.

So thank goodness for subscribing to almost every possible pretty blogshop (or at least to my liking), I chanced upon a pretty purple dress just 10 minutes ago.

Did the payment and now I can only hope that I get it in the correct colour because there wasn’t any colour option during the order… (yikes, don’t murphy on me now…) but thankfully the blog owner is corresponding with me promptly to confirm my colour of choice…

After which, I also chanced upon these lovely Summer shoes by Luciano Padovan in my mailbox.

Assuming that I do get to order the pretty purple hue dress and it fits me right, then all that’s left to do in the next 3 weeks apart from coming up with a list of ways to ‘grill’ the groom & gang is to look for Luciano Padovan-inspired shoes! (because I obviously can’t afford the real deal with my tight budget now)

Hope it works out! :)

Source | Forzieri

I’m a 2nd time voter but for the 1st time, I’m tuning in to Facebook, Twitter, www.ge.sg, channel surfing between Ch.5 and Channel News Asia just to get 1st hand updates on the General Elections 2011.

Its getting very exciting…

I’ve been too lazy to get dressed just to get my butt down to Sephora to top up my make-up stash lately, so entered the next best thing: doing my shopping online.

My trusty Benefit products are starting to run dry (after using them for 6-8 months, well done!), and while the past me would have been able to hit the USD 115 mark to be entitled for Free International Shipping, the present me has learnt to only get what I need…which adds up to a mere below $100 :(

So I am hereby announcing that I would like to hold a spree (since goggling ‘Benefit Spree Singapore’ only returned me either dodgy websites or sprees that were dated from 2008 – 2009, erps) to buy Benefit Cosmetic Products!

If you are interested, leave me a comment and let me know the following:

- Product name

- Colour (if applicable)

- Quantity

- Price

Important Things to note:

* Exchange rate used for this spree : 1.00 USD = 1.35 SGD

* Handling fee of $0.80 per order (regardless of items)

* Postage to your delivery address: $1.00 for 3 items or less. $1.50 for 4 to 5 items. $2.00 for 6 and more items

* Payment has to be made within 24 hours of order to facilitate the spree process and will be capped at USD 115 for total order (updates will be provided)

* Payment will be refunded 100% only if item(s) ordered is out of stock

* Items will take about 3-4 weeks to arrive. Updates will be provided.

DEADLINE FOR THIS SPREE (or I will proceed to order my stash): 27 Mar 2011, 9pm Singapore Time

In case you’re wondering what I’m aiming to get my hands on, here are the items:

covers dark circles extremely well

covers any redness on the skin and scar marks well

brightens the face without overdoing it

For a girl that does a lot of clothes shopping online, I’m really excited that I could potentially do my makeup shopping online too! Woooyay.

So, I never thought I’d ever be blogging an entry from an iPad although while getting J his last Christmas, I was very very tempted to get one and now that the husband’s bestie has been carrying his around, the husband has been tempted to buy an iPad2, except that every epi centre & i studio store that we have been to has been unable to give us an indicative date of it being released in Singapore. Doesn’t help that the apple online store is also out of stock at the moment…

So, imagine Luke’s joy when he won the top prize – an iPad – during his company lucky draw last night. Lol. It may not have been the specs we would have liked (hey husband keeps reminding me that it’s free), but it made us very happy to know that we’ve been blessed yet again and that we could possible save that grand at least for now :)

Call me slow but I found reading books & magazines on this machine a joy! Not to mention being able to do my Internet surfing on news (my heart goes out to those affected by the tsunami in Japan), entertainment & more on the go – it fits in my handbag rather snugly.

And since I’m finally taking time off to start my personal adventure, although a very delayed start from last year, I reckon this could also mean posting more entries on my journey here!

Hope the weekend is bringing you that much needed joy & rest from a hectic work week.

Some 2 weeks ago, the lady who was threading my brows asked if I was in my early 30s because she noticed some wrinkles surfacing just below both eyes. I freaked out (I’m approaching 30 but I’m not 30 yet!), dismissed that I was probably in lack of sleep until she showed me the mirror, applied some wrinkle serum and taught me how to ‘iron’ how the fine lines for 5 minutes before I noticed what a difference it made.

She did ask me to buy the wrinkle-free serum of course, which I refused. I was already spending on expensive eye creams from Estee & Arden so it was ridiculous that I needed to spend another $65 on a tiny bottle of eye serum.

That encounter did start me thinking though. And while a good friend told me during a recent trip that my eye bags and dark circles have improved from before (while asking me for recommendations on a good eye cream of course – and my dark circles used to be real bad), I realized that I had been focusing entirely on targeting eye bags & dark circles that I had completed neglected treating fine lines.

So this evening, when mom invited me to do some shopping with her, I practically went ‘ga ga’ at the beauty section. I was checking out different eye creams from the various brands, and 2 caught my eye in particular. I had heard rave reviews about these products so when I found out that there was a good discount off them (both added up to be slightly less than the price of my usual eye cream), I knew I had to get them. And of course my sweet angel mom decided to purchase them for me too! Double yay!

So here’s what I’ll be using day & night for the days/weeks/months to come.

I’m really excited & looking forward to the results, will keep you posted!