Its Friday 13th and its Ah Ma's bdae!

Started this post on the 16th but never gota finish it as the week from that very monday till now which is 25th... i was tied down with many things on hand! alot of mood swings within these 2 weeks! felt so tired that i have no wish to open up this blog to chase my days! fed up with baby a few times as she is starting to test my patience! she is still adorable but i really hate it when she head slam me or worse... pinch me. besides she is using cry to get away with her bad behaviour!!! i dun want to become a mean mum!!!! HELP!!! also the whole house is in a mess as i still haven got all the things in place in my new room. got new furnitures during the 2 weeks and got contractor in to fix stuff in the house and still trying to up keep the house but ergh its still in a mess and worse i feel so alone doing it! gx has been wanting to help to clear stuff but he's been tied down with work... poor him still got to worry about me and baby and work ... had alot of negative people around me... need to get away from it! give me a break! the only nice moment i got was a few hours getaway planned by gx and it was sweet that he brought me out. he was very sweet. and i will sure post on that... ergh!!! but not soon as i have more important tasks on hand! i hope the rest of the week i can be more productive and i will just post whatever i have done on my mil's bdae and do alittle update...i just needed to let it out.... i need to have more positive energy in me!
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November 13th Friday. Its Ah Ma's bdae! and so lucky FIL needed to attend a wedding dinner and they didnt open the stall today! little one as usual wakes up early to send daddy to work and acts as alarm clock to her grandparents! tried to stop her everytime by telling her to lie down in the room with me, give them more time to rest but she will talk in her loudest volume to get their attention! then my fil would pop in to get her out of bed! and thats what exactly happen!

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Pil and I brought little R for her jab. she was brave but she did let out a little cry when she was jab on the arm but she stopped pretty fast and was all smiley again. While the grandparents hurried home with her, cos the sky turned very grey suddenly... while i popped into the shop where i can get cute rompers that cost only $3! with dap's high fashion statement, it got me thinking what to dress little Rachel for xmas and in all i got 7 pieces for daily wear and for special occasions! 6 old navy and 1 plain white LS gap romper. i am happy with my buy cos they are very comfortable pieces and oh i love the kido images on the rompers and most of all they arent ex! yes they are not the most recent design but i dun need that!

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then i went on with my long list of things to do! Paid my bills and when i head to PS thats where my SPREE started! First i went to spotlight to check out the materials... so ex but i found something i liked to match one of the xmas romper i got. then popped into the dangerous Daiso.. dangerous as everything in there is so tempting and moreover at $2! slowly and surely its easy to chalk the bill and this was my "damage"! Next, i changed my phone, i topped up $90+ and i got my new pinky hp! then changed one more hp for my MIL. she has been asked many times to show our little gal's photos and got me to load some pics on her existing hp which the screen was so smal. then i decided to get her one hp that has a bigger screen. that my "sudden" bdae gift to her! lastly i picked up dear's belated bdae gift from SIL and me. Happy to see to see Seahorse Brand shop at PS and even happier that i got the mattress at 50% off. the 3 folds mattress was not bad as i like the firmness of the mattress! got him bedsheets too! with my heavy and bulky loot, had to Q for cab as it was pouring crazy and head home to surprise my dear who was on half day with his mattress and my mil with the hp.

i want to thank her for her hard work, looking after baby and me, on top of her housework and still have to work at the stall. did tell her the phone was a $0 phone but she didnt mind! then i gave my gal early xmas present! got her a really cute snowman from Barang that is very pretty and it changes many colours and she liked it! i got a reindeer and santa from daiso to make a decorative xmas corner for my baby gal too! rest for awhile after taking my late lunch, i got baby all washed up and prep for our nite outing to celebrate grandma's bdae!

at first i had headache finding clothings to match the pretty pink with black pokka dots stocking .... then i chanced upon a piece handled down by my twin cousins and it was perfect! a white velvety material dress with mini light pink pokka dots! to my surprise, it was a new dress as the tag was still on the carter dress! how lucky Rachel had new dress and new stockings to wear for the nite out! my gal loves pokka dots! very vain cos she knows she wear very pretty, kept looking into the mirror when my fil carried her!

the jam on the way to enter orchard was crazy! baby started to fidget so much in the car and it was so difficult to hold her down! after sending FIL to furama to attend wedding dinner, we continued with the jam to Central. we werew to meet sil who was queueing for seat at a jap restaurant at Central. its mil, gx, baby and also my 1st time at Central. Hated the car park! got so giddy! its a stupid design! round and round non-stop! while waiting for the seat, alot of people walked pass and loved our little gal's stockings! could hear everyone gog gogogaga over it!

bda habit of our little one.... she can't sit still... so we took turns to carry her! while i was out walking about with her, i bumped into an old classmate, my quiet friend in SI! the weird thing was i just added her on FB that morning! i waved to gx and got him out to say hi... looking at his face, i knew he didnt recognise our classmate.... i told him, its our classmate and he blurred as he tot she was my fren.... closer look and he was shocked! Lina has changed so much that he didnt recognise her! we had a short chat and it was good to see her!

the food was ok... won't say its fantastic... just dun ever order Yuzu? some kind of Yam rice... OMG it tasted just like PUKE! the pic is the bowl of rice topped with spring onion and its before the pic taken with mil and sil.... also the service ... ok its gota do with the guy who came to tell us off ... we didnt see the time and PLEASE we won't know the place is closing as we were not given the bill to say they were closing and please we were sitted at the end of the restaurant and they should have presented the bill 30mins ago it they were closed 30mins ago!!! the way that stupid guy phased it was dam sickening! WE WERE CLOSED 30mins AGO CAN YOU SETTLE YOUR BILL NOW! said with one kind of attititude and tone.... its a JAP restaurant.... wheres the service!!! no way am i gog to eat there again! spoil mood!

we were still too early to go pick fil up, so we explored the place. dun like the external escalator... too long and too open for my liking and gave me height phobia to be on it! generally gx and i didnt like the place too much... sadly, the newer shopping centres dun really have much to offer and the layout is weird! only thing was that they have interesting art pieces but how much can these attract people to go back there?

Our first family xmas picture!

went home and we cut the cake sil bot for mil. gx gave the longchamp handbag he bought for his mum. she was happy! she said the best gift this year is.... our dear baby.

Our 3D2N weekday getaway at grandma Popo's house!

November 11 Wednesday. baby r loves saying goodbye to everyone on working days! she practice that at home and she carries on her morning duties at mum's too! as usual, she will refuse to finish up her milk... after drinking half of it, i have to keep it warm till she is done with her morning duty! so it was just me and baby in the morning and after she finally finished her milk, she napped while i get to type away and confirm my next batch of baking ware! i have been shopping online more than ever and i need to stop!!! sis got yummy prawn me for lunch but i had to hurried thru my noodles as baby r was flipping and turning, getting impatient in the cot! good thing was she napped soundly for 2 hours with yiyi and i got some "me time"! soon, this life will change again... i am very lucky to be able to find some time to do what i want but once she turn 6mths old, i will be busy in the kitchen preparing puree for her! i think Rachel will enjoy her meals! i will have less time for myself but i am sure i am going to enjoy the experience. a new chapter in my motherhood- preparing food for my baby! but the truth is i am scared somehow...

this week, she has alot of "new patterns" forming! she not only talks more, but she started to sit with her legs crossed! caught her the first few times and i tot its just for that moment but when i got her on the bed with me, watching tv, she kept her legs crossed for a very long time! the camera was just right next to me and i managed to catch her little feets and see how comfortable little R is when she is watching her disney channel! i am her human sofa - mummy had loads of fats to support her! she could keep her legs cross for quite awhile! oh i love that pipi face!

Dap took half day and she came over and we planned to make some hazelnut macaroons that we learnt from class together! Ann came after school to give dap her wedding invitation but she didn't joined us baking thou... i had some catchup with dap, but we were mostly looking at Rachel, dap was playing with her and my little darling is so fascinated with dap's accessories! mostly i shared baby R's milestone and pipi stories!

just before dap and i start baking, i needed to do a spa treatment for little R.... Coffee Bath. yes... coffee bath... Kopi Oh was prep for bathing Rachel. Asked mum what to do to help Rachel sweat less... cos whenever Rachel drinks her milk... when she is done, my arm is filled with her sweat... very sweaty head! surprised when mum had a remedy and its from my Popo... mum said that most of us (my siblings and cousins) went through this treatment when we were babies. it helps to reduce sweaty head and body... i did it once last Saturday... but didnt have batt to document it... with dap around, she helped me take some photos of baby R's Coffee Spa. baby r didnt like the dark waters the last time round but she quietly sat thru her spa the last time round... but this time, not sure if it was becos dap was around or maybe plus the camera is clicking while she is bathing, or worse pissed becos all the adults were laughing when we saw her blur + dun like the black water face that made her looks so cute... poor little R burst into tears... i got dap to leave us awhile, comforted her and explained to her the benefits and she stop crying, but i made the spa end fast.

sis was curious if this coffee bath really works, if its harmful for baby, what can coffee bath really do... so we searched the internet the next day and i decided to put my find with this post. below's info are extracted from articles found on the web. sis and i were surprised with our find! pretty interesting! didnt say it helps to reduce sweat problems but read to find our the beauty of coffee spa!

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(Did you know that coffee is chock full of antioxidants? This is precisely why it is a wonderful ingredient to use in any beauty treatment because the antioxidants can be topically absorbed into the skin so that they have the ability to neutralize free radicals. Just to update you, free radicals do have the potential to damage many of your cells below the surface, contributing to premature age and disease. To stop these problems before they start, use the natural antioxidant benefits of coffee in your spa treatments to keep your skin looking as fresh and as young as possible. Your skin will thank you!)

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(Benefits of Coffee in Skin Care: Studies have shown that a skin care products spiked with caffeine, lowers the risk of skin cancer in mice. Applied topically, coffee is chock full of anti-aging properties and a potent antioxidant. The grounds of your average coffee bean can help you reduce the signs of aging by fending off blemishes and acne, exfoliating, reducing fine lines and making your skin feel clean and baby soft. Research has discovered that the caffeine in coffee may be able to guard your skin against cancer. Coffee's beauty benefits are well known in Russia, where the banyas, or public baths, have served up coffee-ground massages for years. A quick rub down with the magic bean on damp skin prepared the bathers for a session in the sauna by gently exfoliating the skin and softening it with rich oils. It's so invigorating, you may just decide to skip your morning cup of java and head straight for the shower. coffee's connection to beauty is age-old. And antiseptic extracts from the wild coffee plant were made useful by Indians years ago to effectively help heal dry skin, cuts and abrasions, and even snake bites. Native women in South America used ground coffee beans as part of their beauty regimen for years, due to its exfoliating properties. Coffee also has the same pH balance as human skin, which is why it helps protect against acne and blemishes. It also has good cleansing properties. )

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Lucky for me, my dad came home just in time to carry my little gal who refuse naptime! and i got to bake with dap! to think of it, we were pretty fast with our co-operation and its bcos i bake or make desserts with Dap quite a few times and we attended 3 classes together! she is so nice to take half day leave just to come see baby and me. i appreciate her taking her precious time to spend some time with me! Thanks my dear friend!

while the hazelnut macarons are baking, we played with one of my new bakeware that i got in July! with the leftover fondant, i rolled out and stamped cute cartoon characters on it and placed it on yummy chocolate chip cookies! they turn out very pretty! we kept waiting for the Ting from the oven and constantly ran to the kitchen to check on the cookies. they turn out a little sticky, the bottom got stuck to the parchment paper! then i recalled we used silipat in class! too bad my silipat is at home! having not enough hazelnut made the cookies alittle sweet! but it was still good as the taste of hazelnut is so nice when i popped them into my mouth! esp when they were still sooooo warm! R is always so curiuos - whats in the box, whats in the bowl, whats for dinner! Evidence? sis gota get her attention by calling so many times to get her to look at the camera!

Daddy missed baby r alot today. We called daddy to make sure he got up for work and daddy called back even way before lunch. he was driving to meet his client and he gave us a call! daddy miss smelling baby r! but we didnt go back with daddy as we stayed on for another nite! Daddy got alittle upset with baby R as she wants me more than him.... daddy got jealous! tried to pacify daddy and told baby R not to be mean. she kept crying when daddy carry her while i was away to get nitefeed stuff ready! told her to say sorry and she sayang daddy lightly on the face! yes she sayang daddy cos she didnt scratch his face! Its Aunt S' actual bdae and i got her a cake with ann's help! baby r loves bdaes! dun know why, maybe R knows its last nite at Popo's house, she didnt sleep till past 11pm! i had a super long carry session to get her to close her eyes to sleep!!! when i tot she is deep sleep and wanted to put her down.... she cried loudly and i gota start all over again!

November 12th Thursday. thou she had a very late nite, she woke up early as she loves seeing everyone before they leave for work. thou popo was in her working attire, she still brought lit R out for a short walk before leaving for work. little R is pretty quiet when she watch her cartoons! she will just sit quietly and dun want to be disturb! but she is not an addict! she sat pretty still on her own without herself knowing it! then she as usual, stretched her muscles and roll on the bed!

its was time for me to do alittle pack up. not only i got baby's stuff to bring home, but my very own collection of books, my toys, my precious childhood stuff, photo albums to a whole set of kitchen ware! my esprit kitchen ware that i got years back is still untouched over the years! I got them at 90% off! it was a staff discount promotion! yes way before i got married or even decide to marry who, i got my kitchen ware ready! its gog to drive dear crazy as each week, i am gog to start packing to bring some of my treasure back home!

when will i get to use these new babies of my bakeware collection? i started packing my baking ware which is now constantly used at mums over the months on some weekends. it was just a packing day, haha only manage to pack my baking ware collection and i had some tough time with baby r who kept wanting me to carry her and some time to chit chat with sis and then both of them shared naptime on the same bed while i got to sit and type! still chasing my entries!

Baby Rachel turns 5 months old!

November 10th Tuesday! A special day as my baby girl turns 5 months old!!! She is so different everyday! she is experimenting with her hands, legs, every part of her body. she now can hold herself up with her elbows at a higher level! she can now do triple flips at one go at a very fast rate! she can crawl backwards! veyr soon she will crawl forward and i guess she will be very fast! she swallows her saliva when she sees what we have for meals!

Yiyi came in the morning to drive us back to mum's place. after showering little R which is more like swimming for baby R as she loves water, i dressed her up and we head for ikea. i was there to check out the shelvings needed for our room and shoerack for the many pairs of shoes Sil and i owns... Her collection is growing while mine has stopped for awhile. sat down waiting for Yiyi to buy lunch but she received a phonecall and we had to rush home... just before i change little R out of her purple assemble, i took some photos of her rolling all over the bed and at times, she poses for the camera! Rachel's 5 months old Shoot!

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She can be multi-task! while she stretches her legs to entertain you with her acrobatic skills, with one hand holding her leg, she takes a bite on the othher hand and frowns for the camera! many of her clothings are turning small! she has grown so much that its time again to take out her clothing treasure box to keep away the smalls and bring out the next batch of clothings! this little 5 month old baby had a long nap in the late afternoon after her outing, her photoshoot and playtime with yiyi! while she was asleep, i typed as fast as i could, updating and catching up with all my updates! i love baby r having enough sleep cos when she does, she wakes up with a nice big smile on her face that cheers up everyone!

to show that she is 5 months old... she held onto her bottle even when she closed her eyes to have milk! she talked alot that nite, grabbing alot of attention from everyone in the living room! but she was way too tired and she slept by 9pm and so did i!

a Wonderful Weekend & a Marvelous Monday!

the first week of November was great fun! Rachel and i got to stay over at mum's for 2 days on the weekdays. Sis drove us and gave yummy treats on both days! Baby R loves car rides and new places! Love to see her exploring the places with her eyes looking everywhere! she loves to look at the food we eat! glad she had some time with Popo! Best weekend ever as i got to bake on both days! Macarons on Saturday and making my very own cartoon for the cake that i covered with buttercream! check out the school's website for some photos of the class and our creations taken by the team at Sugar Inc. http://www.sugar-inc-cake.com/

When it was time to say goodbye to Popo, little R had a very sad face. Uncle J who only sees baby R on Saturday, could tell she looked sad! sweet rachel leaned forward as i carried her near Popo... she put her head on Popo's chest... so cutez! glad the 2 weekdays and the weekend gave our little gal some bonding time with grandma!

November 9th Monday. Planned to be out the whole afternoon. so i hurried with uploading the pictures taken from the 2 classes! then i tried to chase the entries! but when i was showering, the rain came and the sky was so grey that i no choice but to cancel all my outing plans. I was back to the desk for another few hours! baby was in good hands thru the day with my PILS. i uploaded as much as i can onto the individual blog entries as i intend to write up from mum's place. will be there on Tuesday thru Thursday! went out for mil's bdae dinner but we ended up at a coffeeshop for zicha as the intended stall had so many tables waiting for their food and there were no spare tables! when we got home, the courier man delivered my baking parcel! got new tools for my kitchen aid. the beater blade will reach the bottom of the KA bowl better than the k beater. love the cookie craft book! so many pretty cookies! can't wait to experiment but really would i have time??? these are my 3rd batch of cookie cutters! i haven got time to upload an entry on all my new bakingware!!! thru the 5mths since i gave birth to baby R, i have been collecting so many new toys for baking and i have yet use many of them!!!

daddy tried to interogate me on the cost but i managed to get away! to me, these baking gadgets are important too! baby r remembered that we were gog to cut cake and she refused to sleep when i tried to prep her for bed! usually we will have bdae dinners on Monday as its my PIL's off day but the cake will be cut on the actual day. We told baby R that we were gog to cut Ah ma's cake when we get home but everyone forgot except baby r! i asked her why is she not sleeping and she frowned! then somehow, i suddenly remember that T.Sam is waiting in the fridge!

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Yup thats the T.Sam my Mil got for my Sil years back! the young grandma, hugged our little gal and told us she is the best present she got this year! Little R kept looking at daddy, Sil and me when we sang the bdae song! then she got to do something special. i gave her the plastic knife to cut the cake and she had this confised look! then she was so sweet after cutting the cake with daddy's help! she gave Ah ma a hug by having her head rest on Ah ma's shoulders! dear took a pic with all 3 Tuxedo Sam! Sil was the smartest! she didnt want to cut T.Sam up so she took the hat part of the chocolate! Mil took the happy yellow feet while i had a pinch of T.Sam's fins...

Baby R slept in my arms right after the cake was cut... she slept as usual after the "party" is over! but once i got her on the bed, she opened her eyes again! then she started to talk to me... she talked non-stop and so loudly that daddy came in to check on us. she chatted with daddy too and she didnt and wouldn't and can't stop talking! i quickly took a video of her rattling off non-stop. when she saw my camera, she can't turn away from it and kept on talking and looking into the camera! which she didnt do that as i prefer to catch her candid... she was so cutez that we end up taking pics with her, to mark her 5 months old! As usual practice on Mondays.... Ah Gong will get to carry her till she falls asleep in his arms. Her new record for lastest sleeping time was set at 11.30pm that nite!

My First Cartoon Cake - Tuxedo Sam!

November 8th Sunday. Created my very 1st Cartoon Cake! pondered over the week which cartoon character to do for my cake! had great suggestions by friends and i searched over the internet for snoopy, my melody ... then i shrink my choice to characters that you can't get in a bakery... instantly i tot of Tuxedo Sam! Not many knows this penguin. Its also a Sanrio character! whenever i go Thomson Plaza for piano lessons, i would run all the way to the Sanrio counter and i love all the cute Hello Kitty, Little Twin Stars, My Melody and Tuxedo Sam items! the only 2 T.Sam items i ever own - a paper clip that i used to keep my music opens open but thats missing now and a little tiny sticker book that is all T.Sam stickers! The sticker book is somewhere in a box in my mum's storeroom... hopefully i can still find it!

Wanted to leave the house but i was delayed as little Rachel needed attention. Gx offered to give me a lift to class but as usual he steps out of the house late and he tot i was gog to the same river valley showroom kitchen for class! drove to haig road and we found the place and i rush in but i alittle later than usual! but i found myself a corner seat giving myself a corner to concentrate on piping T.Sam! we were shown 2 methods of baking a chocolate cake. Genoise and emulsified. ever tried Genoise with Chef Nan and it failed to rise as this batter cannot be over beaten! the exciting part was when we were shown how to do chocolate transfer for the cartoon characters! wooo..... this was fun! we got to piped out the outline of our cartoon character and then filled it up with colours! its like drawing and painting with chocolate! how nice! cos we get to eat it after its created! My 1st penguin was pipped and somehow the thickness of my lines were not ideal... so i quickly pipped a 2nd penguin!

then sadly, the blue for T.Sam didnt look ideal! afraid that i was running out of time as many seemed to finish flooding their creation, i chanced upon a purple and i used it as i tot it mit look good but it wasn't exactly the same colour thou... with other students still working on their cartoon pieces, i tried to mix the blue and filled it in on my 1st chocolate outline. with extra chocolate, i pipped many heart outlines! Sadly when i transfered the chocolate penguins onto the tray my purple T.Sam had an accident and a corner was broken! stayed calm and left it to harden in the fridge... Instructor Philia then showed how to do Italian meringue buttercream which i had learnt from the macaron class the day before so i stepped back and let the rest of the class watch her do it. We assembled our cakes with oreo biscuit crumbs with th buttercream and frosting the cake was not easy!

thou it was difficult to get the cream really smooth on the cake, it wasnt too bad for my 1st try althou i really wanted it to be perfect! the best moment was when every lady in the room got their cartoon characters, there was wooo and ahhhs! No matter how the buttercream looked on the cake, once the chocolate masterpiece is in place, the cake looked good! i pushed the chocolate hearts outline all around the side to "cover up", to draw attention away from the uneven frosting! then we pipped buttercream trimming around the cake!

Viola! my very first cartoon cake! I made a Tuxedo Sam cake! i used the chocolate penguin that i 1st pipped as the blue didnt turn out too bad althou its not the bright royal blue! also becos the purple penguin had a little overflowed colour due to the accident. but both colour looked pretty on T.Sam. Lucky for me, my dear hubby knows Tuxedo Sam! So i gave him the 2nd penguin as a reward for being so nice, allowing me to have my very own "me time" doing what i want and giving me a chance to learn what i love!

With the perfect timing, this cake was made with a person in mind. My mother-in-law. Her bdae was the following Friday but we usually have bdae celebration dinners on Mondays. So the timing was perfect! My MIL knows T.Sam cos she brought hubby and SIL to thomson to get the soft toy years back! heard the story many times and so i know she will be surprised to receive a T.Sam cake! Showed it to her when she got home on Sunday nite... thou she is very tired from a day's work, it was nice to see her smile when she saw T.Sam!

First Hands On with Macarons!

Macarons and Ice-cream Workshop!

1st time i ever see how this is done was at Shermay's. attended the sit-down demo Japanese French pastry class by Keiko. Watched her do the shells for the green tea macarons and i tot I will never try as it seems challenging as time is a huge factor to have pretty feets for the macarons! Without the feets, its not a successful macaron! But i decided to have a go but with a hands-on session with Sugar Inc. But the method is not french but italian as the chef instructor told us, it much easier, a safer recipe to get the macarons right and to obtain the "happy" feet or skirting on the macarons!

So after we did the macarons, the shells were left to stand. then we watched the chef whipped up the fillings for the macarons. I was mainly attracted to attend the class as i thought we would learn how to make lemon curd itself... but it was not included in the recipe pack but the nice instructor would email me soon her recipe. so 2 types of filling, Lemon Curd Marscarpone cream and sure-win Nutella Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Then there was a Ice cream demostration as to show what we can do with all the egg yolks that is left after all the whites are used for the macarons. the vanilla bean ice cream was pretty sweet! if i make this i prob add vanilla paste as i like the vanilla taste to be stronger!

The group i worked with created beautiful set of colours for the macarons! As a group, we exchanged and got 2 sets of each colours. irene and i ended up with one extra shell and we made a Yin&Yang macaron! we shared it after we took a pic of it! once i got home, i had some time and i dolled up the macarons in ribbons and off went the shutter. but i end up having to wait for Mr Tan as my camera went flat without battery!

the sweet marcaons looked pretty with the bows and long flowy ribbons! when i stacked the purple macarons that i coloured, it reminded me of the Leaning Tower thus creating my very own Leaning Tower of Macarons.... yup corny, i know... not a very good choice to take the photos under orange lighting. then i took the black gel to do some patterns on some macarons! Fun!

Ribbon Bow outlined on Blue macaron. Sweet Heart on the pretty Pink macaron. R for baby Rachel on mummy's Purple macaron. Leafy Print on the Green macaron. saved a pc of the chef instructor's baby pink macaron for my hubby and i decorated it with a ribbon bow.

it was fun making these sweets. many complained that its sweet. but this is a kind of meringue and its suppose to be sweet! still my favourite macarons so far would the ones i ordered for my baby's party. love the 3 types of filling esp the nutty one! hopefully i get to do this again and perfect the "happy" feets on the macarons on my own!

Fun Start for the 1st week of November!

NOVEMBER 10th today and Rachel is 5 MONTHS OLD today! she is growing well and is a Big baby now! fights with your fingers cos she wants to hold her own bottle, filps over and turns back easily! she now can Force her way to sit up and tells you what she thinks - most of the time pretty loudly! SHE's My Little Darling! Happy 5 months old! another 30days, mummy will make your 1st meal! my next projects after my baking classes is to read and find recipes for your tummy

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November 2nd Monday. Still feeling excited about the 2-tier cake! can't see my cake as i left it in mum's fridge. so i uploaded the pics i took in class onto FB and i got great response and i felt happy as my cake is liked by my friends! i appreciate the encouragement and i am truly touched and happy! Monday is always grandparents day for me as my in-laws are off from work and they get to play with Rachel. Suppose to pack up and tidy up the room but i chose to ignore it and instead i wanted to chase my blog which was very backdated!!! i am tired and didnt want to do the chores alone and moreover i really need a shelf for all the books that are still in our old room... did something fun, think it was way too much "dry" lemon pound cake for everyone in the house... so i took out one of my new baking buy - baby themed cookie cutter and did some pretty diecut out of the rainbow cake!

Novemeber 3rd Tuesday. Mum and sis is off from work and they came by to pick us up! Both Rachel and I were ready and as usual little Rach refuse her milk as she is way too excited waiting for Yiyi to come. She eavedrops my conversation and made it so difficult for MIL to feed her milk! when sis came, we were both getting the things ready at the door and my gal force herself up from mil's arms to see whats happening! she made an angry face and rattle off in her baby language! that made 3 of us laughed as we are amazed that she wanted our attention, making sure we didnt leave her out!

so as usual, we had to bring the unfinished milk out of the house for little R to finish it up in the car! after picking up our aunt k, sis gave us a treat at AMK Jack's place. sis said the executive lunch set is worth it and it sure is! think it was less than $12 or was it less than $10 for a set lunch! we were the first customers and we had so much space to walk Rachel to sleep! and it was great timing as when the food was served, she was sound asleep and i used my jap carrier to cuddle her while i eat! mum and sis helped to slice up my fish fillet, making it easy for me to eat. with an additional $1 you get to change the soup of the day and they all had mushroom soup while i upgraded to lobster bisque with $2 charged. the peach soda was 1-for-1. it was not bad, having bits and pieces of peach in the drink. sis, aunt and mum had steak and it was definitely worth it! love Jack's place baked potato! the mixed fruit pie served with custard sauce was not bad.

after working 14 days straight in a row, enduring many late nites, mum took 2 days off. so sis, mum, baby and i spent some afternoon time in the gardens. admiring the growth in the garden. mum looked very tired and most of all, she looked so drained. i am thankful to my inlaws for being nice and allowing me to stay over for 2 straight days! i know mum misses little R and Popo have hardly any bonding time with her over the 2 weeks cos she works on the weekends and came home very late in the nite and we had left for home. little R was nice and she seemed to love the change in her afternoon, not just me and her stuck at home!

Novemeber 4th Wednesday. Mum took baby R for a walk while giving me some time to eat my breakfast! when i was done, i stood at the gate waiting for them and i mananged to take shots of them on the road! Mum wanted to go thomson plaza to make a new pair of spec and get her eye checked as she having vision problem. its so lucky that sis passed her driving and she is steady enough to drive us but she have one problem... she must know the route and she only go by the way she is familiar! i coined her the train track driver! yes i can't drive and if it was me and if just started driving, yes i would do the same! i just say it to please my mum as she kept harping on my sis on an incident that happen the day before! but i say my sis is very steady already! i am very proud of her cos it was full house in the car and she got us all to the destination, safe and sound!

again we were the 1st customers! We were suppose to have dimsum at peach gardens. but mum and aunt saw a 1-for-1 promo and we had that with a few dim sums. little one wasnt as sleepy as the day before! she was very awake and i had to eat and carry her with one hand and after awhile, dad and sis took turns with me to carry her and we had to walk her around the place!

the dishes were not memorable. i like the fatty pork rib but didnt find the shark fin fried rice fantastic and the abalone slices were small and very thin! so the set if not very worth it! half way thru lunch, i walked little Rach to ser's mum's shop and Fel was there. she carried little R and we chatted for awhile. as usual whenever mum make spectacles, she would want me to help her to choose the frame. found mum a nice pair of Valentino and the rest of the range was not suitable and true enough, mum only like the pair i chose! sis was very nice, she knew i had body aches and she kindly booked a massage session for me using her package and she even drove me there and after the massage, picked me up! i had a very relaxed afternoon! Then it was so shiok when i got to drink fresh payaya milk shake that nite after dinner! the nite before we had very nice cold honeydew juice! felt very pampered!

mum kept pushing us to take the bigger cot home for baby R... but we ever asked Rachel and she shook her head so hard, when we ask if she wants to sleep in the cot! mum tried many times thru the 2 days. little R was nice to grandma and never rejects when she is put into the cot to lie down but she is so active, once she is in the cot, she is sure to turn to be on her tummy! sis was using the elmo to entertain her! little R loves to play! pretty playful!

We went back home that nite. next day was just mil in the morning with us as usual and in the afternoon baby and me. think i was way to tired and i dun seem to remember what happened on thursday. for sure, i was busy loading photos as i took many photos and i needed to clear space for my weekend classes! Friday was a waiting day! sis called and said they would come pick me up about lunch time.... then she called and say 2+pm.... after which it was delayed further till 6+pm and after they picked mum from work, we finally got out of the house and head back to mums! needed to be at mums on friday as i have a very early class the next day!

Novemeber 7th Saturday. Woke up very early and told Rachel i needed to go for class... to help her understand... i told her its exactly like daddy and pils gog to work... i needed to go out for awhile and will be back after class.... she ignored me... she gave me LOUD AHHHHsss, refused to say byebye to me.... unlike her as she is always eager to be at the door when we send daddy to the door every morning and she don't sleep so she won't miss sending her ah gong to the lift! i like to be early for class and esp gog to a new venue... i prefer to be early in case i can't find the place... but i didnt know i was super early for class! i tot the class was at 10am! i was there at 9.30am and was wondering how come no one came for class yet when it was almost 10am... offered to help with the prep. so i was helping to stick stickers onto the plastic boxes.... then i asked.... what time is the class.... i was an hour early!!!

i was hesistating whether to take this class till somehow, irene and i chatted on FB about it and on the spot, we both signed up immediately and this is the 1st class we attend together! we were in the same team, working with 2 others to make these italian macarons. instead of the french method, according to the chef instuctor, this is a more stable method! alittle disappointed when the lemon curd was not in the recipe pack... this was what i mainly came for as i love lemon curd! but the instructor did tell me she will give me the recipe via email! thats so sweet of her! love the colours our team did for the macarons! they looked great together! after i got home from class, i did a photoshoot for the macarons! had fun!

Aunt O was very nice to buy me the cupcakes! told her that i didnt get to try the halloween cupcakes and she got me 2 to try! i dun know where these are from! but i love the packaging! love the pokka dotted ribbons! i love pokka dots and moreover tied in a nice bow! the truth is i haven tried the cupcake as i type! i cut it up to share with nesa but my portion is still in the fridge as i had too much sweet for the day! and i skip the cupcakes as i attended another decorating class on Sunday!

we celebrated Aunt S' bdae that nite!

next morning, we had some morning time in the garden!
thanks to my hubby, mum, sis and my bil, i made my way to my last class! my hubby sent me to class and yes, very sweet of him... but i rather not as he usually leaves pretty late and i end up just in time for class! but still with him sending me there, saves me cab fare thou!

my very first 2-tiered cake!

November 1st 2009. Sunday. An important day for me! I have looked forward for this day and i was feeling excited since i woke up that morning! left early as i didnt like to be late for class. as an usual pratice i like to be at least 30mins early. i like to get into the environment and have time to go thru the recipes before class starts.

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Making my very first 2-Tiered Fondant Cake!

Love watching Chef Philia. She has such soothing voice and she makes every step look easy and never intimaditing! Covering the cake with fondant was alittle scary for me! cos i wanted it to cover the cake perfectly thou its my first try! i was glad i did manage a good job for the 6" cake but the smaller 4" cake was a challenge! I never tot the smaller cake would be so much more difficult! but lucky the asst. instructor Fiona was such a sweet girl who have such steady hands, helped me out to make sure my white fondant covered the cake nicely! i did my homework before gog for class! i did flip books, drew sketches and did a study on colour combination! the roses i made are not perfect... but with encouragement from Fiona who kept telling me, the rose look good, i kept on moulding my 2 other roses and all 3 roses looked the same with big bloomed petals! guess its my way of moulding roses for now! personally i do love the lime green and dark purple i created! i sure hope i can create the same colours next time! the class was really fun thou i looked stressed out! i was afraid of taking too long to finish or having not enough time to finish as i have to rush back to see baby rachel! But i really enjoyed myself and happy with my first creation!

thou i had a great time, went home to face my unhappy hubby! he told me baby cried with tears looking for me... she was terribly upset not having me around... my sis who can pacify her had gone over to her inlaws for dinner and i ended way too late, away from her for too long... but when she saw me, she had a sad look but she wanted me to hug her as she leaned towards me from my mum's arms. gx said that she cried and seems to have mumble mama... i gave my baby girl a tight hug and told her i was sorry... dear was alittle impatient with me and didnt want to see my creation... making me alittle sad. mum told me it was nice. had alot of encourgement from my friends when i posted it on FB! dear too wrote something sweet on my FB when he cooled off... we took pics with the cake 2 days later as i have left it at mum's fridge! took alot of photos of my very first fondant 2-tiered cake before i cut it up for dessert!

this was taken after i was done in class by the founder of Sugar Inc, Anna! She is very kind as she emailed all the students all the pictures she took! Her shot is so much shaper than the ones i took of my cake! to view the works of other follow students check out Sugar Inc's website! http://www.sugar-inc-cake.com/

2009 Halloween Party!

October 31st 2009. a Spooky Saturday! a Rainy Halloween! but we got to the party and i love it! Aunt O did a great job decorating the house! its filled with more halloween decor this year! every corner you turn, every colour you see it spells halloween! the doorbell was fun. press the button and the spider "stings" your hand! and lets out a "scary" laughter! my little gal not scared or maybe dun know its scary, she put her hand and touch the mouth area of the evil pumpkin, looking for the spider that sting her hand! love the scary floating candles! the lights were dim in certain areas and it set the right mood for the nite!

love the pic of R with her tiny finger in her mouth... haha she looks like she is trying to look spooky! she looks kinda comical to me! thou i detest that finger in her mouth!!! cos whenever she pulls out her tiny finger/s gosh.... follows a pool of slimy saliva!!! my favourite part of the house is the carpouch. cos i love the lamp with the orangy web! love the spider web table cloth! Aunt O set up a kids corner serving the kiddos their very own party food! the doorgifts for the kids were either witch pots or mini pumpkin filled with eyeball chocs! these had balloons attached to them!

then the beautiful collection of halloween items from Japan Disney Resort! Aunt got them from her recent trip! haven you ever seen a mickey ghost character? check out the chocolates! creamy little mickey ghosts! then check out mickey and minnie pumpkins! aunt o got them as porcelein plates, soft toy and many colourful minitures plastic containers that were filled with candy!

the only kitty halloween item would be this movable hello kitty in a ghost costume! think it shakes with a japanese song! tot i heard some japanese! love the cute water containers! i prep my gal with a soft pumkin bag for trick or treating! then i found my orange bear and i put it into her pumpkin bag! this year i am no longer at SAS but lucky aunt o got some mini pumpkins cos i love having one of these tiny ones every year!

love the shot i took of my cousin! the window effect did make the photo look "errie" but wished i had taken one that she was making a expressionless face, cos that would be a really good scary shot! the only shot i took with my mum with Rachel! my little pumpkin baby can't stop looking around! esp when the children, my cousin L's frens all run round screaming their lungs out! Baby R kept looking at all the items and all the dangling decor, very curious but glad that she didnt cry! Love the badges on Nesa's vest! We had a MJ theme but when Cousin L invited her frens, its was half MJ theme and of cos Halloween theme. love the silly shot of my bro's imitation of franky! the scariest costume would have to be the mask that Uncle W suppose to wear... nesa took it from her dad and made it hers!

best dressed characters would be my aunt o and uncle m! Marilyn Monroe and Elvis! who can beat them! even L's doggie had a costume! Vampire doggy! so why are the boys not dressed???

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Rachel's First Halloween!

we are the orange pumpkin family!

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thanks to gugu, i borrowed the cute halloween hat with mickey mouse ears. Sil got this from HK disney shop at the airport. Little R's costume was an assembly designed by me. 2 months back i chanced upon this cute old navy white long-sleeved romper that says Daddy's Little pumpkin! it cost $3! then i got $2 worth of orange organza from haji lane. got a seamtress to sew 2 layers onto the romper! a little ex $10 but she did a fantastic job as she did a better job than i expected. got her old navy stripy green and white long pants $3. so in all her little halloween costume cost $18! and thanks to gugu, she wore the white H&M "pilot" hat! making her look cuter! seems like all our head gear are from gugu! daddy borrowed gugu's MJ looking hat! after a few shots, baby R surrended!

Aunt O ordered adults buffet from Samy's curry! the food were all in orange and red colour! how halloween! spicy but everything was tasty and yummy! love the masala chicken! the squid and fish.... didnt get to try the lamb thou! we used all halloween cutlery! for the kids they had red tomato sauce 3 colour spiral pasta, cocktail sausages, fishballs and halloween cupcakes!

Nope i didnt make the cupcakes! wanted to bake halloween cookies but didnt have time! will make them next time with my baby! the cupcakes were not cheap! heard aunt K say it seems to cost $4-5 for one! for dessert, the kids had chocolate ice-cream that suppose to look like mud, served with gummy electric-coloured wormies! while the adults had both chocolate and mint ice-cream and yes with a few worms in the cup too!

dear joined the boys in performing a special MJ tribute gig! the boys planned and they went to get the wig and they all got together to practice for their performance in the afternoon! they were the Jackson 5! with Cousin B being the young MJ! so they sang some part of songs from Jackson 5 and they then they broke into a dance and song from the Korean Wonder Girls, performing Noboby! everyone in the house laughed, giggled and they did a great job from colouring their face to entertaining everyone!

i am glad that my dear hubby joined them! its his best halloween costume so far! he sure did a good job with his face! the black is applied so smoothly! but for sure i won't allow him to perm his hair!!! the "wash off" session was funny! all the boys end up looking scary with their half-washed face! Cousin B kept saying he look so gay in the photo he took with me as his eyes seemed to have eye-liner! tot he look more like a rocker!

my dear baby was sleeping as i played treasure hunt with the little frens of cousin L. We even off the lights to have a dark treasure hunt around the house! but maybe i haven been working with kids for a long time! couldnt take the screaming!!! all the loud chatter at one go! end up with a slight headache! trying to keep cool while trying my best to give instructions!

when little R woke up, after changing her nappy, i started to take shot of her in her 1st halloween costume! her angry expressions suit the halloween nite! when she saw daddy and started to warm up to my camera, she kept posing non-stop for me! ended up with many shots and these were selected, put together to see her motion thru 15 mins of non-stop clicking

some of the funny expressions, the shock expressions and the cheeky expressions got me and daddy smiling thru the shoot! she is sure one pipi little baby! she loves her costume as she didnt want me to change her! she very ai piao liang!

Counting down to Halloween!

gosh started typing this on Nov2nd but never got it done at all!!! has been a busy week, lots of outing and still can't get over my wonderful cake decorating experience on Sunday! to get to that i must finish thissss!!!! cos i am gog to attend 2 more class and that = to MORE photos! more updates!!! time!!!! i need time!!!! ok i need to get to it NOW!
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the week started with gx's bdae. so glad i managed to book the massage but the body still aches! better than not having an hour off to relax.. tuesday, i walked to the market to find myself a seamtress to help me sew my little gal's costume for halloween! after walking around the market asking 4 shops, only one aunty entertain my plea! the rest all say they only alter althou the signboards all states dressmaking or tailoring.... she listened to my idea and looked at the romper and organza material and when she heard when i needed it, she gave me a look and i was so afraid... she told me so rush.... will charge more cos the material is very soft, difficult to sew... i jus ask her to name the price.... i did hold my breathe.... she said $10 and i said YES straight away thou she did say she can't promise if it can be done thou.... she will call me.... to either ask me to take it home or let me know when to collect....
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28th Oct Wednesday. waited for the call from the seamtress.... she called in the afternoon! but it was good news that she completed the little skirting on the romper! phew! if not i would be stuck with no costume for my little baby! days are pretty good with little rach taking pretty long naps in the afternoon! i was chasing my updates thru the week but somehow i am always fascinated with my finds on the net that i ended up restless (like now too! looking at beautiful cake blogs! Kpoing on facebook... what else can i do at home to keep my life interesting?)
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29th Oct Thursday. went to the market early in the morning to collect my masterpiece for my baby R! told myself that even if its shabbily sewn ... it ok as its halloween! can have as much frills and baby R will still pull it off nicely.... when i took up the little romper from the bag, i dropped jaw! it was beautifully done up! nope i am not gog to show it here as i am gog to link that to my halloween entry! i thank the aunty and she was pleased to see me happy! told me its was hard work and i appreciate her efforts!

with the load of my chest and i was in a very good mood to prep stuff for halloween! i was helping my aunt o with the children's treasure hunt. so i started to wrap up little lollypops with tissue, making them into Ghost Lollypops! got some twisters alittle below the sweet and drew the eyes and mouth with marker. did all these while baby is sleeping! got them in 2 bags and i turned the bags into a pumpkin! i got a huge wonka's bag for trick and treating!

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right after i packed the goodies, Rach woke up and i rushed to her as i saw her choking. as i held her up, she threw up! it was alot of puke! she looked shocked but she didnt cry as i calm her down, telling her its ok. mummy's here and she just looked very blur. cleaned her up and hugged her closed to me. poor little one had a dose of cow's milk and she puke everything out. i suspect she is allergic to cows milk. so i got her to continue with soy milk. that changed my mind about gog for the nite outing on Friday...

30th October Friday... a special day! but its a day that i had so much mix feelings since Rach threw up on thursday afternoon! baby R hasnt been feeling very well! she look kinda pale and she had wet nose! that make me decide not to join everyone for the movie in the nite. but Rach was still very active even thou she sneeze a few times! after communicating with dear, he told me to go ... i want to watch the movie with my mum. Gx had offered not to go as he said he's not a fan and most of all, he will take care of baby R while i am away.

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i took good care and extra care of little R and she seemed better. then the heavy storm at 7pm helped me to buy time from her as it made her think its time for bed and i managed to get baby R to sleep by 8.15pm! her usual sleeping time is at 9pm+. but the unexpected thing was gx was still not home and worse still at work!!! i did feel frustrated as i had to rush and instead of having enough time to travel to meet mum for dinner, i was stuck at home playing the waiting game! as he was driving back, i was glad that sil helped me out. i am thankful she stayed home to help me and her bro on a friday nite!

as i was walking to the station, gx turn in and told me theres a super long q for taxi.... i decided to hop on the train and keep calling for taxi and if i get one i will get off at novena... but the line was engaged! so i got off to take the NE line to harbourfront... walked super fast to get to the train but dam i had to wait 4mins as i missed one by a min! called sis and she say they just got to the cinema! i had 10mins more to get to the cinema! called gx and he gave me directions to follow to help me get to the cinema without having to look for it frantically! once i got off the train, i ran! i climbed the many escalator steps! panting and still i climbed more steps and off went my flipflop slippers slapping loudly on the floor as as i ran to the cinema! once i stepped into the gold class cinema 2.... i put my bag down and went round snapping photos for everyone! i was glad i made it as it was still running ads!

so after the shot with mum, the movie started. got myself in the comfy in the nice seat and cover up with a blanky, watched the sad narration that was screening. i grew up watching MJ at award shows since i was a kid. i love billie jeans and who's bad mv. watched it so many times on recorded tapes at grandma's place. i love the song We are the world and always looking out when it was his turn to sing. as we watched MJ sing during his rehersals, we were 1st served coke. i was very thirsty from the run! then was glad they served soup next! cos i didnt eat my dinner! the mushroom soup and garlic bread stopped my stomach from suffering gastric! then i had mexican chicken with capsicum served on rice. loved that it was served hot! for those who eat beef, they have a huge beef burger that had nice hot potato wedges. the food sure warmed my tummy! to top it, we had brownie with vanilla ice-cream for dessert and last of all, we were served tea or coffee.

i was glad i made it, if not mum would have sat alone. i enjoyed the movie and really tot that MJ had a good show but it was a pity that he didnt make it happen. It was good thing that all is not lost as he had footage from his rehersals. he is a very talented artiste. a performer and he is forever the King of Pop. i am grateful to my Sil who stayed home to help my hubby out with the little one. a big thank you to my hubby who sacriface his friday nite to be with our sleeping baby who woke up once at 10pm for her "milkshake" (cos daddy added too much milk powder to the water!). Also i must thank my baby for being so good... talked to her when she was asleep that i hope she sleeps thru the nite and be good till i get home, if she needed to be fed or needed a diaper change.... that she makes it an easy nite for daddy as i am gog to watch a movie with popo. A BIG thank you goes to my Aunt O who helped to organised and book the tickets.... cos i initated it but didnt have time to pull the project thru alone.... and of cos i must thank Uncle M who paid for all the expense! It was a great nite before halloween!