Let's Make Merry

Here’s wishing you lovely folks joy & happiness. Cheers!

P/S: I'll be back blogging as usual on Tuesday. Happy holidays!

DIY: Piñata Tree

This color palette & miniature pink elephant had me at hello. So cute, right? Anyways, bring some last minute Christmas cheer to your space with this adorable little piñata tree that you can whip up with some basic craft supplies & this tutorial. Now, I’m going back to gushing over that elephant.

Via Anthology.

Ribbonesia

Sculptural ribbons? Yes, please. By the Japanese studio Ribbonesia. Check out the Ribbonesia blog while you’re at it & be blown away.

An Anthology Winter Gift Guide

I know I’m a little late with the Christmas themed posts but I just discovered this little gem & had to share. If you’ve been living under a rock (or crazy busy like me) & haven’t already read this, do check out the special digital issue of 2011 Anthology Winter Gift Guide. It’s packed with DIY projects, holiday decorating ideas, gift recommendations & so much more. With tips from Lotta Jansdotter, Eunice and Sabrina Moyle of Hello! Lucky & so much more you’re sure to be as delighted as me!

DIY: Wrapping With Kraft Paper

With Christmas just around the corner, I’m sure a bunch of you have your presents for loved ones sorted out & ready to be wrapped so here are 12 brilliant ideas to wrap with kraft paper compiled by Emmaline Bride.  I personally love wrapping with kraft paper, be it for the holiday season or for birthdays. As kraft paper is very affordable & easily obtainable, you can never go wrong by adding your own personal, handmade touch. So, go nuts with ribbons, doillies, laces or hey, why not scribble your own pattern?

Ladurée Macarons

I had my first taste of macarons at Ladurée Royalé Paris in 1995. Ever since then, I’ve loved these crunchy, melt in your mouth little pillows of heavenly confectionery & rejoiced when macarons finally started making waves in our shores last year (thank you dessert gods). So imagine how I squealed with delight when I discovered a lovely little branch of Ladurée at Harrods during my recent trip to London (read Part 1, 2, 3 & 4). I can’t believe I never knew it was there before but if you’re in the neighborhood do look for it at the right-most corner of Harrods on Brompton Road or hey, here are all the addresses of the many Ladurée branches around France & the world while I’m at it. These are the pictures of the small box of macarons I carefully hand carried home with me from London. Trust me, I savored every bite of these babies! Hehe.

Psst! Scroll over the pictures for little description.

London Is Cracking & Bob’s Your Uncle! p.4

Are you bored yet of all my pictures of London? Well, I hope you’ll bear with me just a leeeettle more. I promise you I won’t post anymore travel related pictures for a good long while & I’ll go back to posting craft tutorials & design crushes, cross my heart & hope to die (ok, maybe not die. How about come down with flu instead?). As before, scroll over the pictures to get a little description & check out Part 1, 2 & 3 if you haven’t already.

London Is Cracking & Bob’s Your Uncle! p.3

The hubby & I took our time to explore as much of London as we could & as we’re both quite the shutterbugs, we have tons of pictures to share which I’m sure you can gather by now! Sorry but hey, it's my blog & sharing is caring right? Right :P

FYI, I used my Olympus Pen 2 while the hubby had his Olympus XZ1 (both cameras were our hantaran/wedding gifts to each other) & I’ve edited all the pictures you see in this blog with an Earlybird filter like Instagram with my handy dandy Photoshop. Do scroll over the pictures to get a little description & check out Part 1, 2 & 4 if you haven’t already.

 

London Is Cracking & Bob’s Your Uncle! p.2

Just in case you thought I was losing it, thought I’d better give you a translation of this post’s title. Hehe. Anyways, I’ve got more pictures of London to share (surprise, surprise). Do scroll over the pictures to get a little description & check out Part 1, 3 & 4 if you haven’t already ;)






 

London Is Cracking & Bob’s Your Uncle! p.1

Hello duckies. If you haven’t been following me on twitter, you might have missed my very sudden announcement of a short trip to London about two weeks ago. Yup, the hubby & I were in London, freezing our tropical tushies off. The decision to go was so sudden (as per usual for us if you haven't already noticed) that I didn’t have time to post a little something on the blog to explain my absence, much less time to even buy warm winter clothing & pack! So sorry to have left you folks without a peep… was tempted to write a short “hello from London” post but by the time the hubby & I were done gallivanting around town for the day, all I wanted to do was snuggle under the covers with a hot water bottle & try to regain feeling in my hands & feet. Yeah, I hate the cold.

Despite the initial rush (& cold), the hubby & I had a lovely time in London. As it was the hubby’s first time in London, we went to most of the major landmarks including Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament & Big Ben, London Eye, St. Paul’s Cathedral & notably spent a whole day at the Tower of London (which we think is well worth the 23 pounds + 4 pounds for the audio guide per person if you’re interested in English history like us). We also got to experience the thrills of Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park, shopped a little & ate our way through Portobello Road & Sunday Up Market, visited Greenwich to soak in the history of England, spent a whole afternoon at the Churchill War Rooms & went back to Liberty multiple times (not really to shop but to ogle) amongst many other things.

Between the hubby & I, I think we easily took over a thousand shots but I won’t bore you with all of them… just a couple here & a couple more at the next post then probably a little more at the next few other posts if you’re not bored to death of them yet. Hehe. Here you go… (Do scroll over the pictures to get a little description & check out Part 2, 3 & 4 if you haven’t already)