Sunday, December 25, 2011

Let's Make Merry

xmas 2011

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

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

Friday, December 23, 2011

DIY: Piñata Tree

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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.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Ribbonesia

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

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

An Anthology Winter Gift Guide

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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!


Tuesday, December 20, 2011

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?

Monday, December 19, 2011

Ladurée Macarons

The Napoleon box of 6 macarons. Cost me 11 pounds, eek!
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.

6 little exquisite macarons. From left to right, Blackforest, Blackcurrant + Violet, Rose, Vanilla, Caramel + Salted Butter & Praline. My all time favorite is the Caramel with the Rose coming in a close second. Yummmm.
My first taste of the winter seasonal special flavor: Blackcurrant + Violets. It was so GOOD that I felt like kicking myself for not getting another box!

Friday, December 16, 2011

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

Hyde Park in the winter is just as lovely as any other time of the year IMHO.
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.

Vintage glasses from I Love Snackfood, mustard yellow coat from Zara & boots from Clarks (50% off!!)
Do not be fooled. The ground was wet & cold!
A swan at Serpentine Lake, Hyde Park. This fella was huge (with his neck extended he could've easily reached my shoulder!). I kept a good distance away from it, trust me.
One of the old school wooden rides at Winter Wonderland, Hyde Park.
Another shot of the London Eye. Yeah, I took a million shots of it :P
Westminster from the London Eye.
Love these posters of the Churchill War Rooms. It's a great museum if you're a history buff like me & my hubby. We're not pros but history never fails to fascinate us.
"We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a glow-worm." My favorite Winston Churchill quote! Hehe

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

Me at Westminster with London Eye in the background.
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.

Bobby the hubby on the river cruise we took from Westminster Pier heading down to Greenwich. The river cruise came free with our hop on, hop off bus tickets which we thought was an awesome deal. Check out www.theoriginaltour.com 
St. Paul's Cathedral & Millenium Bridge seen from the River Thames.
That's us with part of Canary Wharf in the background.
At Greenwich with compulsory hot drink.
Us at the Greenwich Meridian Line.
Queen's House, Greenwich. Now part of the National Maritime Museum, it also houses an outstanding art collection. King Henry VIII & his daughters Mary & Elizabeth (who were both queens in turn) were born here. I was tingling in excitement when we stepped into the this place.
Bobby the hubby posing as well :P

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

British Slang
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 ;)

Do you happen to have the keys to Buckingham Palace's gates? Would've been awfully useful when we were there...
Queen Victoria monument in front of the Buckingham Palace
Bobby the hubby at the Tower of London
A Yeoman or better known as a Beefeater. If you ever get to visit the Tower of London, make sure you take a tour with one of these guys. It comes free with your ticket & I can't recommend it highly enough. They know the history of England inside out & belly-achingly funny!
The tower of the Tower of London. This was once the tallest structure in England (and in the whole of Europe in fact) for a couple of hundred years.
This lion reminds me of Falkor the luckdragon from The Neverending Story :)       
A view of the new from the old. That's the Shard, which will be Europe's tallest building, as seen from the Tower of London.
Tower Bridge, NOT London Bridge.
A view of London Eye & Westminster from the River Thames.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

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

Murni & Big Ben Tower

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)

Houses of Parliament & Big Ben
a busker at Westminster
obligatory photo booth shot
riding an old double decker bus
stars at Oxford Street
carousel at Winter Wonderland
ice skating at Winder Wonderland