As a certified cupcake fanatic, it would totally be incomplete if I did not make some of my own. As much as it is a lot of fun venturing out and trying cupcakes from different places, I thought I should not insult a baker (deep down) inside me. Thus these homemade cupcakes were born as of February 2012. Gotta record it in a history!!
Shame..shame..shame, this KitchenAid mixer was given to me a gift on my very first Christmas here in the States from my thoughtful husband. At a time, I was not working, thus had plenty free time to experiment and let my creativities flow with baking adventure. A few months later, I landed a full time job and that was when my baking adventure ended. It had been years until I whipped it out this weekend to use. No kidding!! My husband has been using this mixer more often that I do. You can probably say that it was a gift from my husband to himself.
My mother-in-law birthday is coming up in a few days and that gave me a reason to whip something up to celebrate her birthday early. I decided to make a homemade version of everything from birthday card, soup to cupcakes. Do you agree that the prices of carda are ridiculously expensive? That would make sense if it is a customized card or one of a kind. Heck i made my own.
Koh Tachai Island is a small uninhabited island roughly halfway between the Similans and Surin islands. At 165 kilometers north of Phuket and 65 kilometers northwest of Khao Lak most boat tours that come here are live aboard tours travelling from and to the Surin Islands and Similans. It is however possible to reach this area with a two hour speedboat from Khao Lak. Morning tends to be the most crowded time to dive here but doing a sunset dive doesn't mean all the action is gone.
The main features of diving here are its submerged pinnacles, large boulders and excellent wildlife. The top of the reef is build with excellent specimens of hard coral while deeper parts are known to have many boulders, sea mounts and sea fans. Most divers start at its southern more popular and deeper site while the northern side features a huge abandoned fish cage. As with other island in the area this region is common to spot white tip reef sharks, nurse sharks, manta rays and the king of all marine animals, the whale shark. Other more common species such as large schools of barracuda, Napoleon wrasses, yellow-backed fusiliers and banner fish can be found in huge numbers. {Source: thailand.greatestdivesites.com} Be sure to turn your sound on when watching this video
Summer will be here early for Nelah - you may spot me in a swimming suit this year!See you soon Tachai Island!!!!!!
On V Day, there ain't no romantic dinner under a candle light just the two of us. But we did something a whole lot better by celebrating the day of love with an entire family - now thst is quite unusal right? I think it was great and gave a completely different Valentine's vibe. When mentioning about Valentine's day, this day is often associated with love and romance between couples. Love has no boundaries, thus Valentine's day should be the day we celebrate love of all kinds..be it mother's love..father's love...pet's love and so on.
I used to hate Valentine's day when i was young and single. It was quite depressing indeed because i didnt have a special someone to share the day with plus I didnt get any flowers (that's really disappointing!). Now that I am much older and married, i couldn't care less. A card is good enough, save money for a family dinner instead of paying for some overpriced flowers that will eventually end up in a trash. Or givea me a money bouquet, frugal much?? LOL I know I am not fun nor romantic as my husband would say.
Heck i guess age has a lot to do with a decrease in overall excitements. Anyway, my ever thoughtful husband managed to send some surprises to my work, not once but twice! First it was a Calla lillies plant and next a box of strawberries covered with chocolate from the famous Sharri's berries. Yum-O...What did i get for my husband, you ask? Nothing...now that's an awesome wife i am. No worries my love, there will be many late thank you gifts in the weeks to come. Better late than never, right..right??
Now to the outfit, i celebrated the day with some animal print, bold colored cardigan, big and cozy scarf and some tall black boots. This was my V day edition of bold love.
Just in time when the final winter month rolls around and the cold climate is about to end here in a few weeks (hopefully), my frozen brain finally managed to remember an almost forgotten tweed jacket which a very thoughtful Santa kindly brought over last year. The thing was hanging in the dark in a closet whispering for some love and attention - "wear me...wear me NOW!" OKie..dokie, when would be a better time to sport a tweed jacket? Summer? Hell NO - not here!! Winter - yes pleaseeee.
Boy was I glad I got this jacket? It is warm and perfect for this freezing weather. As much as I love winter clothing, I am secretly hoping for a warmer cllimate and more sunny sky. I guess weather has a lot to do with our mood (especially my mood) because I do not feel very active on a cloudy day - okay blame it on the weather some more.
My skin hates this dry weather as much as I do. I break out more than normal during this time, not to mention how severely dry my face gets. Nothing seems to work so I gave it another shot with below products from Sephora {Yu-Be Moisturizing Skin Cream / Yu-Be Lip Balm / Lancome Mousse Radiance Clarifying Cleanser}. Will come back with thorough reviews of these products in a month or so.
Now don’t get this post title mixed up with the 18 kids (or 20+ now?) and counting show on TV about a family with almost 2 dozens of children because this mama is very far from being capable of caring more than one child! One is quite handful.
February 8,2012 coincided with our 8 year anniversary –wooo…hoooo. We barely made it… man…tell us about it - lol. In fact my husband and I have known each other for almost 10 years now (we spent about two years learning each other before committing a suicide together on this journey). To many people’s surprise and amazement,we never celebrated..let alone having trouble remembering our anniversaries year after year and after year (if you never miss any posts on this blog,you know we have two anniversaries so that adds more confusion to the whole thing). Not remembering your anniversary is bad but it is not too bad when both partners forget…right?...right??
{How do you like our anniversary picture?}
This year though,we managed to remember a very special day of us beginning our lives together as husband and wife. Yesterday eight years ago on Sunday,2/8/12,we joined hands in marriage back. The good thing is we never feel like we have been together that long (which is a good thing in contrast to having a feeling that you have been with someone for a zillion year and have enough of it –not a good sign).
{Celebrated with something sweet and sugary as a way to add extra sweetness to our marriage}
During our eight years together,we have witnessed many of our friends broke up.. got married...got divorce....and got married again.
During our eight years together,there are countless of down times and up times.
Love,relationship and marriage are such complicated and delicate matters because it involves people’s minds and feelings. A key to a successful marriage can easily be summed up in one phrase as someone would say “give and take”with a little note though...always "give" more. Giving goes a long way.
Sure there is a life in this bowl of roasted duck noodle soup or to say it correctly there used to be a live duckie waddling around before it ended up in a form of roasted dead duck in front of my eyes and down my belly (poor thing - okay i shall stop before i feel more guilty about consuming it). Believe it or not, this very same bowl of duck noodle soup has a special story behind it or you can say Nelah can make a story out of a bowl of noodle. Either way it is a story of life changing event that i cant help but think about it every time i order a bowl at my favorite restaurant here.
Duck noodle soup has not always been my top choice of noodle. I do like it but not to the point that it makes to the very top of my list. It is something i order once in awhile when I want something different. Back in 2008, little did know this bowl of noodle was about to change my life forever. I had a very strange and strong craving for it. A feeling was so intense that i had to have it that day or else i would die. My husband even had to take a leave without pay which was totally silly for just a bowl of noodle and yes he lost $$$ of a day pay that day -duh! Lucky me - the only Thai restaurant in town which is about 45 minutes away makes this noodle for their Thai customers every Saturday. They saved my belly!!
My dad even jokingly said that i might be pregnant. A few short weeks later, i found out i was 9 weeks pregnant!! That clearly explained why i had such a strong urge to eat that day. That was a clue! Pregnancy craving is just so weird.
{Yum..yum..yum how can this be a noodle soup without noodle, right?}
I know we are not done with the cold weather but trust me my pale feet are dying for some naked time. Whenever you experience the winter blues, close your eyes and imagine a vibrant and sunny summer blue sky. How about a pair of pretty sandals? I think they will cheer you up instantly too!
{Franco Sarto Shoes, Jaunt Sandals in Nude/Papaya/Teak - $79}
I am a total sandals advocate if there is such thing. As someone who grew up in a tropical country, sandals are my typical and favorite choice of shoes for such climate. When you sweat from head to toe in a 90F+ degree weather on most days, it is important to wear something breathable to avoid a stinky and stuffy situation - as I refer to it as "a stinky feet syndrome".
{Isola Shoes, Balta Sandals - $175}
I can't tell you how many pairs of sandals I have owned over the course of my life because there are way too many! As a matter of fact, I am not a pump kind of girl even though I certainly adore the look of pump heels and ladies who wear them, and have been tempted to buy a pair or two or three but they are just not my type. Pump heels offer such professional/sleek/sophisticate and elegant look but if you suffer a stinky feet syndrome then wear those closed toe shoes at your own risk. Ewwww!!!
{Bebe Shoes, Charlene Platform Sandals - $125}
Sandals come in so many different shape, size, style and color. I love how versatile they can be. There will always be something that suit everyone's preference and for different occasions from day to night...from the beach to the party...from grocery store to work...from playground to a high end restaurant. Paring possibilities are simply endless and fun.
In case you start thinking that I am slowly turning this blog into a food blog, I have a pleasure to inform you that I have no intention to do so yet. With that said, I broke free from cooking for a short bit and temporarily closed my kitchen to venture to the outside world this weekend to give myself a nice little break with the husband.
Weather has been pretty crappy in the past week or so. Perhaps a downfall of winter is this nasty, yucky and unpleasant weather that accompanies by the rain. Sure we need rain around here but rain absolutely turns me into a very lazy person (gotta blame on the weather, right?). I miss you sunshine!!!! To brighten up the dark and dull weather, I knew I needed a little mood booster like this stripe cardigan from Forever21. Is it just me or the price of stuff at F21 has gone up despite the fabric/materials have becomed ridiculously thinner and thinner? Am I crazy or what? I thought I was wearing a piece of paper. If not because of the gift card I received on Christmas last year, I didn't think I would buy anything from there. This cardigan was (supposedly) marked down to 50% from original price of $29 (approximately - and that was overpriced). It should have costed like $15 to begin with but once again I used gift card so no complain (until now - lol)
We really didn't do much this weekend and that was a good thing. The in-laws were so kind enough to watch our little wee one and keep her over night at their place so my husband and I could have a very rare chance to spend time together just the two of us. It was raining on and off all day on Saturday but that did not stop us from going. We went and got me a new phone. It is not an Iphone. Okay how about I never own an IPhone. I am not the one who needs to have the latest,hottest and the greatest. So a basic smartphone will do for me as long as I can make and receive a call, do basic browsing and tex. My husband on the opposite is a tech geek. I think he wishes he could upgrade his phone every 3 months if he could. Then we continued on to do some window shopping and to my husband's amazement I didn't buy a thing (even I was amazed, how about that?) despite the fact that we visited many of my favorite stores. Boy I wish I was in this "not in the mood to shop" mode for the rest of the year, we shall be rich!!
We eneded our super excited and adventurous day at the grocery by 7PM. Fun..fun..fun - what else can be more fun than grocery shopping, right? Boy it was so damn crowded. I mean it was 7 PM. Gotta thank the Super Bowl, zillions of people (okay not that many) just went out to stock up on food for the big day. I am not a sport fan so don't ask me Super Bowl related. I am super fun, I know.
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