Jingle Bells.....

{Mom bought the cutest ham ever for our Christmas Party, Ham is inside! }

I am soooooo still in the Christmas mood. It has been a fun Christmas, I must say! Had two huge feasts, probably gained 1 or 2 kg. RH has been in a holiday mood all week, he is on leave and does not have to go to work, how cool is that? But, he does derserve the break for working so long.

Some pictures to post before I leave for China this Saturday! Whenever I tell people, I am going to Jiuzhaigou, their first response is "Beautiful Scenery" followed by "Its very cold at this time of the year". Yeah Yeah, and so me and RH are totally prepared, lots of memory sticks and thick thick clothings. The clothes that we brought will definitely ensure that every picture we take will have two huge dumplings in there.

Anyways, picture time!!!!!

{Christmas Tree in Takashimaya }

{Dinner with RH, Mussels in White Wine }

{Salmon with Spicy Coriander Sauce }

{Potato Gratin, it actually taste better than it looks }

{Fried Chicken Wings for Christmas Party }

{SY made grilled vegetables }

{Mom made salmon steaks }

{We went down to Orchard Road after dinner}

{Orchard Road Christmas Parade}

MERRY XMAS!!!

Its Friday and we have got a long weekend ahead because its a Monday Christmas! Yippy.....

MERRY CHRISTMAS to ALL!

Yes, it is festive season, there are Christmas sales in the mall, Christmas songs on the radios, Christmas movies on TV, Christmas presents and cards......yoo hoooo.....not to mention all the Christmas feasts!!!! (I have to be careful not to pu on "too" much weight. Hee hee) I did all my beauty treatments already, facial, upper lip waxing and my favorite manicure and pedicure. Even put on a Christmas Color Nail Laquer on my hands.

RH has a Christmas company luncheon today and he had to get 3 last minute gifts for his colleagues! Which is not so bad news for him but definitely bad news for me cos I had to wrap his presents and make little gift tags to go along. I wanted to buy the tags at Wheelock Place (dat was where I had my nails done), but they ran out of gift tags, can you believe it? I did not have time to make gift tags especially after my manicure.

Anyways, this was what I made with available resources....turned out pretty good, if I may say so. :P

{Free hand drawing of Xmas Tree, its not very pretty, I know but I am not an artist.}

{Top of the package! }

In case you all are wondering what is inside, its a Vacuum Saver. Hahaha!

Christmas Celebrations Lined Up for Me:
1. Christmas Dinner with Bible Study - 15th Dec (over liao)
2. Christmas Dinner with RH - 23rd Dec
3. Christmas Dinner with Family - 25th Dec
4. Christmas Caroling - 23rd Dec
5. Christmas Service - 25th Dec

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!

Happy Birthday Papa! Hope you have a better year ahead! No more operations or sickness! And you should really lose weight to stay healthy.... Hee hee! We are going out to dinner to celebrate Dad's birthday! Already had birthday noodles this morning and SY has ordered a delicious delicious cake from "The Patesserie" Good job, gal!

We had dinner at Peach Garden in Thomson Plaza. Food was so so. Anyways, since there were lot of visitors from Indonesia, we had to have 3 tables to fit us all.

They were serving these really cute mouse muah chi desserts, hahaha! Brings a smile to my face.

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Its been raining cats and dogs and probably elephants too. Heard that Thomson was flooded up to waist height yesterday! Thank goodness, the rain stopped this morning.

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I attended the Shabby Chic 2 class on Monday! Made 2 LO's which I am realy happy about. The class taught us a lot of new techniques which I can't wait to use on my next LO. I am sooooo getting the distress ink pads, chipboard alphabets and stamps. Hehehe!

{Macau Trip with RH}

I rally love this particular one for my newphew, JP. soooo cute! I just realized that I ought to change the background of the LO cos the yellow bedsheet just distracts everything.

Made in Indonesia

My furnitures are finally done........it has taken like 6 months to get everything designed and fabricated. So excited! can't wait for it to be installed.


TOP: Living room cabinets. Its gonna extend the whole of my living room wall.
BOTTOM: Kitchen cabinet. A stand-alone that I requested to put my water filter on.


TOP: Study room bed. Actually copied the design from Pottery Barn kids (look below).

Looks better than I expected really! BOTTOM: Master bedroom bedframe. There are drawers at the bottom and there is a cushioned bedhead. This is a picture of the Pottery Barn Kids bed....

Master bedroom wardrobe. It is just the additional....hee hee.

Study room table and shelfs. The shelfs are placed above the tables and they are inverted so it looks funny.
Kid's bedroom bed and wardrobe. They are connected to each other. My wardrobe doors will be fitted with mirrors.
Coffee table in the living room

Side table in living room to match my coffee table

Dining table, also a copycat of Pottery Barn

This is actual pic of the Pottery Barn Dining table.

I love this piece, copied design from Laura Ashley but I think the handles still need to be fixed up. Actual picture of Laura Ashley

This mirror is made by another company while the above aare all made by our family's own carpenter in Indonesia. Kinda regret buying this mirror. Was totally planning to put it above the mirror credenza (see pic right before this) but I think it would totally look weird. Gonna see if I can hide in in one of the rooms.

Armchair! From the same company as mirror. I have a pair of these that I am gonna put in the living room. My dressing table. It looks very weird! I hate it.....it absolutely does not look like what I wanted.

Matching side table for RH, needless to say, I hate this too.

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Been so busy these few days with budget meeting......yikes! Some of the sales people will have it bad with their sales target increased almost 50%. I have to buck up and work harder too.

Made with Love just called to remind me about class today and since I am in my office still, I don't think that I can make it and need to re-schedule. I totally forgot about it..........

He HUFFED and He PUFFED and He blew.........

I had a taste of a pastry called Cookie Puff in Sydney. It looks like a GIANT cookie, actually. Couldn't resist buying one to try when I saw it at a mall in Sydney, the fragrant aroma filling the basement floor of the mall was probably another irresistable factor.

Took one bite and I realised what this Cookie Puff is. It is the Taiwnese Polo Puff and I learned how to make it during my Creative Culinnaire Class months ago. The puff is extra crispy because of the topping on the puff. It is a sugar puff pastry, I think and it adds a really light and sweet taste to the puff. The filling is best if kept light cos a heavy custard filling kinda dampen the whole puff.

Finally had a chance to make it again on Saturday. I think mine tasted as good as the one in Sydney although I am not vey consistent with the size of the puff. I also made three types of filling, a custard filling that RH adored, a green tea cream filling that SY requested and a regular cream filling with Grand Marnier that I felt was most like the one in Sydney.

The "not so great" thing about any choux pastry puffs is that they tend to get soggy before the day is out. Best to make pipe it right before the guests arrive.

Familes....

FMIL came and gone on Monday! Hmm, considering our history, I would say that the weekend went well. I was so so tired though because I was up very early and got back very late. accompanying them shopping. Even manage to go to JB (Johor Bahru) on Sunday.

Dunno why but found that FMIL was much more accomodating than what I previously thought she was. Maybe it was the cake I bought her for her birthday last week. She even brought a slice of the cake for me to try. Hee Hee. So Happy!

Sorry for the no show this week. It has been a really really busy week. Stressful for both me and RH. I had tons of work to do. Reason being that I got a lecture from my Dad last week about not performign at work. I worl for my Dad, by the way. So, this week, gotta work extra hard. Not to mention the wedding preparations that need to be done. Ron's trading business also needed me to do some translation work and my sister needed help with Delimanjoo too.

All in all, it was such a busy week, we had to squeeze in collection of our personality test results, baptism of our small group members and also an Alpha committee meeting.

Worse of all, RH and me had a fight on Wednesday night right after collecting our personality test results. It was a personality test that we took for our marriage preparation class. Took the class from church. Only way the church in Indonesia was going to marry us.

Anyways, it turns out that me and RH have similar and different personalities. But more different, I think. Our undrestanding of each other's personalities are quite good too. The problem is that RH has all the dominant traits while I have all the quiet and submissive traits. This is no good BECAUSE, then he always bullys me into doing stuff that I don't want and I alwyas feel that he does not put my feelings into consideration so we had a huge fight.

The next day was Alpha Committee Meeting and Baptism so we had to attend and pretend that nothing was wrong between us. We ended up not talking till today until I cannot stand it anymore and took the initiative by writing him a really really long email. REALLY long. :P

He replied with an equally long email of course which kinda appeased me a little but then stopped which is probably gonna make me pissed again.

Midnight Dessert

Did some night cooking yesterday! Came home from dinner at 8:30 pm and thanks to my sis, SY's bright idea, we decided to start making a dessert that takes at least 3 hrs to prepare. But, SY decided to bail out after the first steps were over and left me to guard the dessert for 3 hours.

Anyways, this is what we prepared!

{Vanilla Panna Cotta with Coffee Gelee}

This dessert reminds me of the traditional uniform for jailed convicts. We needed to firm up each layer by refrigerating the mixture for 30 mins before adding the next layer. That is not including the preparation time for the two mixtures in the first place.

I finished adding the last layer at 12 am last night. Did not get a chance to taste it yet. I hope it is worth it. Anyways, I got the recipe from Evan's Kitchen Ramblings. Of course, her glasses and pictures are much nicer than mine.

Matcha Cupcake

Made Matcha Cupcakes yesterday! I actually also made Matcha Frosting to go with the cupcakes but they turned out too sweet so in order not add more diabetics to Singapore, I have decided to forgo the frosting.


Maybe I need to just find another frosting recipe. Anyways, I used Chokylit Cupcake Recipe for this.

I think it tasted ok because RH had one last night and took 3 more to work today!

First LO for Korea

{Korea LO}

Finished this LO last nite. How come I can't be as creative as those scrappers I see? Anyways, gonna keep trying. Have to pick up papers at MWL next Monday to work on my calendar. I can

only go on Mondays because they have double stamps on that day only. I guess I should work on my newphew, JP's LO for now. I still do not have any ideas on that.

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Saw Xiaxue's program on Channel 5 last nite....... she is funny! But not as fluent in her way of speaking as Ross is. Although it is probably because Ross is a DJ......

Baking Galore

My sister was in a baking mood last week and she made cookies and cupcakes.....really a rare occasion in her case! Anyways, here is what she baked. Wonder if I could persuade her to bake more stuff this week. Hehehe *evil laugh*

Look at these pastel coloured cookies, they look sooooo sweet!

I call them the Arty Farty Cookies

Cupcakes Galore
I jumped on the baking wagon and made mini Pecan Pie with Bourbon.

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My new bedsheet..........YES, I am a bedsheet fanatic! I already have 6 bedsheets and I am still looking at more.

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It is really expensive to make new Indonesian Passport. Each passport cost SGD $110. My goodness. Luckily it is valid for 5 years. RH just made his new passport. Pity cos ALL his visa are in the old one. Now, when he travels, he has to bring both passports.

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Currently working on scrapbooking my Korea Trip, altering my Recipe Folder AND working on a new calendar!!!

Korean for a day!

Annnyeong Haseyo! I am at home now listening to Rain's latest CD. I just finished a home made dinner of Bimbimbap, Kimchi Soup, Bulgogi and Korean Pancake. All made from scratch except the Kimchi and Pancake Batter of course! Unfortunately, both me & hubby are not as good looking as Koreans......or should I say Korean actors when I went to Korea, mojority of them look nothing like Bae Yong Jun. Just trying to be Korean for a day! :)

Tweaking

Tweaked my blog a little! In fact, I changed my blog address......trying out my new name. I guess I am a traditional woman by heart. Although I truly love my Dad's surname (Ko), it is so unique as compared to hubby's (Lim). I am Mrs Lim or Halim now.

You can see that I also added a picture, descriptions and changed some fonts and colours, etc. I think the white background makes it nicer to read. After reading numerous other blogs, I always find the ones with white background fresh and easy to read.

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RH is not going back to Sydney on Monday! Triple Hurray! Something about his customer not signing the contract yet thus he is not allowed to commence on his work.

Also, my bank account is somewhat fuller because RH was hit by a guilty pang and decided to give his wife some pocket money to spend as any husband should. Hee Hee! Good for me! Why does that not happen more often?

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Made mini pecan pie and stained glass cookies last night! Am so tired! The stained glass cookies are really hard to make. They are suppose to look like this.

We were suppose to cut out the cookie doughs with a shaped hole in the middle, the place the crushed candy in the middle so that it melts and creates a stained glass effect.

First Try:

Candy melted beautifully but cookies were not cooked so we baked it a little (too much) longer and the candy and cookie both burnt.

Second Try:

We decided to bake the cookie first, take it out, add candy and bake again. We put too little candy thinking the reason why our candy overflowed in our first batch was because we added too much candy. Added more candy and burnt the batch.

Third Try:

We baked cookie first, took it out, added candy, baked, took it out, added more candy, baked, took it out, added a little more candy, baked and finally, it looked kinda decent.


Fourth Try:

Bake the cookie, took it out, added candy, baked, took it out, added candy, baked and burnt it cos my sis, SY, was chatting to my cousin when she was suppose to be on a look out for the cookies.

Record High

This year must be a record high in travelling for RH & me. I have been on the plane no less than 18 times this year, visiting 4 countries.

Its almost 2 pm and I am still waiting for RH to call me so that we can have lunch together. He had his lunch at 5:30 pm yesterday! Whatever made me agree to have lunch with him?

Bought lights for my balcony and additional downlights. Gotta get my contractor to come and install them

Cute Doggie Cookies

It was a baking fiesta on Saturday! Made 3 types of cookies: Doggie Malted Cookies, Cornflake Cookies and Koko Crunch Cookies. All cookies were created with recipes found online. The doggie cookie was more "look" than taste. It looked so adorable but tasted horrible of course. The reason though might be because I do not have Horlicks Powder so I used regular milk powder.

Notice that eyes are not all in same direction.

Experimented with bunnies too. Hahaha!

No pictures for the cornflake and koko crunch cookies, had to leave them baking in the oven while I pick up RH. Yes, RH is here for a week. Dat sentence actually sounds kinda weird describing someone who lives here. Well, RH was sent to Sydney, Australia for 2 1/2 weeks assignment which turned out to be 3 months so we both really cherish the time that he is back in Singapore. Pictures of Sydney below!!!

{Harbour Bridge}

{Hunter Valley}

{Darling Harbour}

{Sydney Opera House}

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Finally completed the scrapbook LO that I have been working on for ages. Must be influenced by my friend, JT. She is so into scrapbooking all of a sudden that its scary. I think she spend like a hundred dollars a month on her new hobby! Conversations with her now almost always includes scrapbooking and it really motivates me to start making my own LO.

Took stock of all my SB stuff and discovered that I really purchase tons of stuff from US. Well, SB stuff are much cheaper in US so I am using dat excuse as consolation. Hee hee!

Achooooooo!

Aaaachoooo, forgive me while I wipe away the dust lying on top of my laptop. Its been awhile since I blogged. I have been travelling every two weeks. Feel so guilty leaving my job all the time. I am not a Tai Tai yet, mind you but I can totally get use to this lifestyle.

I just got back from Sydney, Australia. Wonderful country, really. People are helpful, weather's nice, you always find toilet paper in public toilets and people get off work at 5:30 pm.......hehehehe!

Two things I need to complain about though:

1. High standard of Living. Everything is so expensive in Sydney. Imagine a Nasi Lemak for AUD$7.50 (SGD$9), triple of what Nasi Lemak cost over here.
2. The Flies, of course. They are huge, they are everywhere and worse of all, they stick to you.

Hope to put up pictures soon. My pictures are kinda all over the place cos some of them are taken with RH's pics. BTW, he will be there till Feb so meantime, I am a TSW (Temporary Single Woman).

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Cut my hair on Tuesday. Shunji Matsuo. Heard really rave reviews from his customers. I thought my hairstyle was rather plain but when I went to Bible Study later that night, my Bible Study mates were complimenting on my hairstyle. I guess the shorter hair does make me look younger. Oh well, no time for regrets, you know how long it takes for me to grow my hair.

For years, I only trimmed my hair twice a year and 1 inch each time. That is 2 inches per year and it took me 3 years to have hair that touches my chest. It grew so slowly that I tought I would never have long hair so I am quite scared when people tell me to cut my hair short.

Work Again!

Back from Korea! It was one whole week of bliss......no work and all I had to do everyday was have fun. Yep, we took Chan Brothers tour. It was pretty comprehensive in my opinion. We went to Yongjin, Jeju, Daegu, Jeonju, Cheonju and of course Seoul. Unfortunately, we did not get to see the Maple leaves (which we were really looking forward to). It was a dry Autumn this year and the Maple leaves withered before even turning red. How sad is that! Pictures below.

Day 1

{Yongjin Everland Amusement Park}

Day 2:

{Dragon Head Rock}

{Mount Maison}

{Korean Folk Village}

{Green Tea Museum}

{Mysterious Spot}

Day 3:

{Healing Buddhah}

{Korean Street Snacks}

Day 4:

{Parking for disabled and babies}

{Mount Maersan}

{Wine Museum}

{Korean Handicraft Village}

{Dun remember the name!}

Day 5:

{Herboo Land: Flower Bimbimbap}

{Nami Island}

{Changduk Palace}

{Lotte World}