tea for two

Rather belated I know, but here are some photos from a little tea session my mum and I had in celebration of Mother's Day! =) Did you do anything fun with your mama?

(Jumpsuit and bag: Urban Outfitters, necklaces: Madewell and Chapel, platform sandals: Gap, Hat: Brixton)

I bought this jumpsuit sometime last year when it was on sale in an Urban Outfitters store, but I'd never had the chance to wear it out (or more truthfully, I'd never bothered to make the effort to mix it up in an ensemble). But there's something about being on holiday that makes me feel a little more adventurous... I mean, what better time to try something out than now, right?

(tea for two at Four Season's!)

I looooove high tea. Just the feeling of being in someplace quiet, sipping on steaming cups of refreshing tea and nibbling on tasty treats (i.e. sconessssss) while catching up on things with someone close... it's one of the best ways to spend an afternoon. Sadly, I don't get to do this as often as I'd like to with my mum since we're both usually busy with our own matters. But we usually go for it whenever there's something to celebrate about. This time, Mother's Day and the end of my exams!

(Am not really one for the clotted cream. Normally I just take a huge dollop of strawberry jam and... add the scone in as an afterthought.)

One of my favorite bracelets from a store in HK called Chapel! :) That places is just an accessories heaven. And all sooo reasonably priced too! I just liked how this one's a little quirky and cute.

(Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap)

So a couple of things I've been up to:

• am currently on vacation in the U.S! :D I've just spent a week at my uncle's place in Seattle, visiting my two cute little cuzzins (well, not gonna be little for long) and doing all sorts of kiddy stuff with them like attending Brownie troop meetings and updating myself on the current popular artistes totally rockin' it in tweendom.
• just discovered the awesomeness that is Modern Family. My aunt mentioned some plotlines to me and it sounded hilarious so I decided to check it out myself online. And homg, Mitchell and Cameron are adorable. And Sofia is way hot! Everyone in that show is so perfectly cast. Anyone know a good website for streaming the episodes and one that is errr preferably... free? :P I'll buy the DVD one day, promise.
• Currently in NYC! Just arrived today and am staying at my mum's friend's place in Brooklyn! Anything fun to do in Brooklyn? I'm really keen on checking out the Brooklyn flea markets but the minute I brought it up, my mum's friend's mum (who is like 1st generation immigrant to NY from HK awesome matriarch type immediately recommended I check out Marshall's instead XD for items that are cheap, good quality, and best of all, refundable! teehee. She's really quite funky.)

More updates soon~

because i can't sit still

(From Hong Kong Island to Kowloon by ferry)

I suppose it's more of a touristy thing to do, but I really enjoy taking the leisurely ferry ride from HK Island to Kowloon (and the minute I get off at the pier it's STRAIGHT TO THE SHOPS :D). My boyfriend told me that they're going to be discontinuing these rides soon because it's no longer economically sustainable. It would be really quite saddening if that were the case though. There are so few things of historical significance that remain nowadays. I respect places that place emphasis on preserving things that are of culturally meaningful rather than always give in to what makes more economic sense. Which reminds me, I really need to go to Eastern Europe before it gets mass-gentrified and unrecognizably modern (!).



(I do believe that's the BF walking 10 steps ahead while I whip out my camera on the street. :D What's the rush, big boy??)

I also visited my grand-uncle and grand-aunty who live in a quaint, quiet part of Hong Kong called Tsuan Wan. It's almost like a retirement village where the air is (supposedly) fresher, life is slow-paced and simple, and you can always depend on the ONE dimsum restaurant to go to in the vicinity rain or shine.

In the two years in a row that I've visited HK, every single time I visit my granduncle and aunty they bring me to the SAME restaurant that's like a 2 min walk from their apartment. I wonder if they groan inwardly every time they receive that dreaded courtesy call from me saying, "I'm here!!" thinking, I haven't even gotten the chance to wash off the scent of that restaurant and now I'm going back again. HEH.

But really, the food's pretty tasty. And being the dimsum noobie that I am, I really can't tell the difference between good and excellent dimsum.

Two of my favorite dimsum dishes - fried rice with lap cheong (the yummy Chinese sausage) and carrot cake!! (though there's nothing carrot about it).

Here's a photo of my dear old grand-uncle. He's a real sweetie.

(GAH look at all the medicine bottles in the background. Enjoy life while you can kiddos, 'cos it ain't getting any better!)

(Yummy tangerines and grapes that they brought out, being the gracious hosts they are! :))




I suppose this is what you get after 50 odd years of marriage.

Ooo and because he received such rave reviews, here's another photo of Chomper! :) Can't wait for the day when I can get my own doggie... I'm all for a Labrador Retriever!! They're the absolute cutest in my opinion... And great to bring out for a jog too.

So my finals starts in 1 week. I'm determined to use less of the internet over the next few days but we all know how terrible my will-power is. :((( I'm sooooo looking forward to the summer holidays which will be in just a little over 2.5 weeks! This past school year has been one of the most tiring and challenging ones yet and it just seems like I never really had a nice long enough break to take a proper rest. In fact, the only break we had was the Xmas break that was just about 2 weeks long.

It's funny though, because I used to be able to sit down at the table and really concentrate on studying when I was a lot younger... but now I can barely sit still before I get immensely bored and have a compulsive need to be stimulated by anything... usually it's the nearby iPhone which is such a blessing (or is it?) since it provides instant access to Tumblr/gmail/Twitter... Tumblr is pretty incredible don't you think? I love how it provides instantaneous gratification through posting something out into the world in such an seamless, uncomplicated manner. So I guess over the next few days, my little tumblr will be overflowing with updates borne out of boredom and study angst/frustration. Let me know if you have tumblr! I'm always interested in finding more tumblr-blogs to read and of course it'd be even better if I could get to know you better through that.

Before I end off, just a little sneak peak into the tip of the iceberg of my Spring 2011 Wish List. :DDD

I've been dreaming of getting a lovely little brown envelope clutch but of course that Jimmy Choo one is merely a dream buy! I think by the time I earn enough to get that it'll probably be a vintage item. I'm planning on DIY-ing my own little leather clutch once the exams are over and more importantly, once I can FIND some leather fabric to DIY it with. I've just seen how simple/awesome it can be from Cheetah Is The New Black and Style Scrapbook and am so looking forward to giving it a try! :)

There are so many things I want to get down to doing this holidays... I think I've been a little too pessimistic about some things in life recently and it's really time to just move on and look forward to the best parts of life, always. Some things I'd really like to get started on or do more of:

1. Bake!! Especially cupcakes. I'm really want to master the art of baking a REALLY GOOD CUPCAKE. Pretty frosting and scrummy flavor combined.

2. Get back to photography. I haven't really had the chance to further my photography skills these past few months (it's always food food food :P) but one day, I really want to just go to a random, less explored part of Singapore and just snap away!

3. Explore all sorts of lovely design, fashion and photography blogs. After quite a long hiatus, I've discovered some really great blogs over the course of this past week and it just so happens to be the week before my finals grrr so I can't wait to catch up on my blog reading and get inspired to do awesome stuff of my own.

4. Exerrrrcissseeee. I've totally degenerated into a big ball of inertia. School does that to you. -___- I actually prefer study breaks to the school term because there's so much more time to do stuff of your own accord. I've exercised more in these past 2 weeks than the entire past year combined. Haha, do you guys feel that way? That really, work or school can just get in the way of the good things in life?

Alright, I guess that's enough for the time being. Till... next... well, hopefully soon! :)

P.S. SOB. I just realized that the change in 'age' in my profile was LONG OVERDUE. Yup, the truth is out. SIGH.

why, hello stranger

It's been ages, I know. :P And I seem to always start off a post with something along those lines! And end off with a rambling paragraph about how school sucks and there's never any time for anything else. Quite EEEEYSH I know, but I'm trying to look on the bright side of things. 2.5 weeks to my finals for the year and I'm taking a break looking at photos taken in these past few months (soooooo many soooo many) to break the monotony of the day.

I left off at Hong Kong, Dec 2010, so that's where I'll continue from! :)



Say hello to Brownie. He's the adorable mangly furball of a POODLE who belongs to my aunt! I stayed with her when I was in HK over the holidays and got quite acquainted with her THREE cutie patuties. He's my faaaaaavorite. :)



Here's his older brother, Chomper, who is also about half his size. Funny how things work out in life, no?

I tried to get a shot of the youngest one, who's also a poodle, and darker brown but he was ALWAYS moving so most of the shots are blurred. Maybe one semi-clear one will pop up in the folders soon. ;p

A visit to HK is never complete without a walk through the market/street stalls (and of course, the market shot is a must).







So there was this particularly famous Dimsum restaurant that my bf kept saying we had to try because not only was it supposed to be fabulous grub it's also really CHEAP. It opens at 10am on weekdays and thinking we'd be there earlier to beat the crowds, we strolled over at 10.30. THIS WAS THE SCENE. :(((( And I never did get to try the super dimsum from there!

There was, however, lots of this:

(Pork Chop bun!)

And this:

(Left: Bo Lor Pao! something like Pineapple Bun but there's nothing Pineapple flavored about it... Right: One of the boy's favorite street snacks. It's really hard to pronounce...something like Gai Dan Zai..? Egg Puff Waffle. Pretty nice when it's hot but a little on the bland side for me.)

(In Mongkok)

Here's chomper saying "Night, night!".

chomp-fest

The past few days has been a bit of a baking-fest for me! :) The school term is always so insanely tiring and busy that I seldom have the time to bake stuff though it's such an enjoyable hobby for me. (Which reminds me, how will I ever become a domestic goddess a la Nigella if I don't practise now huh??) So I took the opportunity over the past few days of the Christmas vacation to create a mess in the kitchen and indulge in a major chomp-fest.

First off, chocolate chip cupcakes stuffed with chunks of hershey's cookies and cream chocolate and topped off with rainbow sprinkles. A friend gave me this recipe once and it's actually REALLY SIMPLE :p as it doesn't really involve baking entirely from scratch (coughcough I use the Betty Crocker devil's chocolate cake mix) but it does allow for some creativity in terms of what you add into the mix. Trust me on this, the Hershey's cookies and cream chocs are divine and go soooo well with the normal chocolate flavor.

These ginger snaps actually look better than they tasted. :( I dunno what really happened but there these were just an overdose of baking powder. 'Nuff said. SIGH.

The chocolate cupcakes in a pile! :)

Then came the fun part. This was the first time I've actually made gingerbread men by myself (previously it was with my aunt in Seattle a few years back and we always simply used the ready made cookie dough) and boy, was it a challenge! I found a recipe online which called for the use of 1/2 cup of honey but TYPICAL blur me read it as 1 and a 1/2 cups of honey syrup and the boy only realized it when 1 cup had gone into the batter and the entire thing was so runny there was no way of making a dough out of it. So in order to salvage it, I had to double the batter and repeat all the steps once again in order to make up for the extra honey and in the end, I just kept adding FLOUR FLOUR FLOUR and more FLOUR. Must've used up more than 4 cups of flour for sure. Sure it was an ordeal but you know what? It was so fun. :D I LOVE making gingerbread men now! My favorite part is rolling out the dough and pressing the cookie cutter into it and then peeling the perfectly cut piece of dough and placing it on the tray. Totally tedious but so fun.

The gingerbread men are actually pretty ginormous! About the size of my palm? I didn't realize they'd be so big but the cookie cutter I bought just happened to be a larger than average. While baking in the oven under the glow of the oven light they all looked like little expanding monsters. *shudder*

Felt like a total kindergardener in an art class! :p Not great at icing them but what the heck. It kinda sucks too that my family is on the whole pretty health conscious so I had to limit the number of cookies I decorated lest no one in my family eats any of them because of the icing sugar.

In other news... I'm in HK now! :) Meant to post this yesterday while I was packing but in the end I just ended up doing all sorts of other stuff. Just felt all happy and excited because finally -- I'm able to wear my new f21 beanie and Frye Engineer boots!

One of my favorite things about HK is the weather. I love how it actually gets colder during the winter such that it's just the right weather for boots, scarves, hats, coats... layers, layers, layers! Fun things that are impossible in Singapore. I just arrived in HK a few hours ago and am going to be staying at my aunt's place for the next week or so and there's wifi so hopefully I'll be able to update daily! =) Stomach's totally growling now... can't wait for breakfast to come soon...!

So how's everyone's Christmas coming along? 2 more days! :)

Here's something I put on my Christmas list and openly hinted to my sis, my mum AND the boy yet nobody paid any attention to my pleas:

1. DOMO CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!

And these would be so multipurpose too because you can use them to decorate the place for all sorts of parties, not just xmas ones! But did they listen to my very tempered and well thought out reasoning? NO.

If I were a guy living in the U.S. with an Urbie store right around the corner, I'd so get these two shirts.

So what's on everyone's Christmas list? :) Do tell!

xx

my heart's in so many places

Ta-dahhh! Finally a continuation of my posts on my travels this past summer. :p It's about 4 months overdue and there are still about say 500 photos I'd love to go through and eventually post so... at least that's something to look forward to till the end of this year.

So here's the next bit about my Seattle trip. I left off at the FIRST day of my time in Seattle. Now we're making the momentous leap into day 2 of the epic chronicles.

(coat: ebay, boots: shop in Hong Kong, scarf: Ruche.com)

Half opened eyes and face drenched in sleepiness? Puts the time of the photo taken to anywhere before 12 noon. That was pretty much my default outfit every day in Seattle because it was chiiilllly. I love though, the feeling of cold air so crisp and biting that it startles the senses every morning upon leaving the house.

First stop? Nordstrom Rack!! That was the first time I'd been into one so I had no idea what to expect. Racks and rows and shelves crammed to the brim with clothes, shoes, accessories... in so many different sizes and designer labels too!

Biggest score of the day? Swedish MIA clogs at a discounted price of about $60. I later found out the exact same ones were being sold in Urban Outfitters but for close to $100! Thank you, God of outlet shopping.

It probably wasn't on the same day but eventually I did manage to stumble in a drunken haze of happiness into the Urban Outfitters store at Alderwood Mall.

(BEST SIGN EVER. I just couldn't resist.)

(new basic striped shirt!)

Was really tempted to get this multicolored striped tee for my boyfriend since, who doesn't love a splash of color? But then I remembered most boys are timid and conservative when it comes to fashion. My future son, however...

(I love how they displayed all the shirts in that manner against the wall! :D Another reason to be in love with UO.)

So Alderwood Mall is pretty much one of my favorite malls in the entire world. Granted, I haven't really been to that many malls in the world but this one basically has all the stores I love under one roof. I remember the first time I was brought there by my aunt a couple of years back. I'd painstakingly written down a whole list of the stores I wanted to go into ("American Apparel... GAP... F21... Urban Outfitters...Payless") and didn't know how lucky I'd get with this mall. By the end of the day, with every turn of a corner inside, I was greeted with multiple surprises as I managed to locate store after store on my list, eventually striking almost everything off. (I think Anthropologie and H&M would be the only two missing ;p. That's still a dang high score rate!)

It seems that every time I go to Alderwood Mall I end up getting a Charley's grilled beef sub. ;p I remember being incredibly famished the first time I tried it out and it was SO good I've not really tried anything else every time I go back.

(Colors colors colors. I just brighten at the sight of them. This one was in the AA store.)

So this was just a random shot taken in a supermarket. Isn't it amazing, the sheer number of choices available for something as simple as burritos? I was just bowled over.

This Ted Talk I viewed recently discusses the paradox of choice and how too many choices actually overwhelms us, makes us indecisive, and paralyzes us in a state of inaction. :P Thoughts about it? I still say there's no question about it - the more choices the merrier.

Bye for now. I wish I could spend more time blogging but then reality always wins. School stresses and sleep beckon.