Painting our room!

Today, we had our bedroom painted. 

I started the morning with a trip to Ikea with the mil and bil to get mirrors (I broke the one in the living hall two weeks back!) , Joey's glass cabinet, a new coffee table, some bed storage boxes and some other knick knacks. 

We also enjoyed a good brunch of ikea food! I simply love their chicken wings. 

I love this idea of a "island" cum "bar" idea. A pity that our kitchen will be very small and I doubt this would fit. But I may consider trying to fit it in cos I love it so very much!! 

Anyway, we got home and started painting around 3ish in the afternoon. It's my very first attempt in painting a room and it sure is a lot of work! The mil, bil and I worked really hard to have the room painted. Three walls are blue and one wall's yellow (: we didn't have enough yellow paint so we'll be painting it soon next week. 

Till then, I'm really proud of our bedroom and I love it loads! (: 

Clean up clean up, everybody everyone!

This entry is meant for 28 Nov (: 

This morning, I woke up really early to bake. One of the perks of being on vacation! I baked some Red Velvet Roses and also another cake. 

I really loved how classy this cake was, especially since it was filled with fresh mango mousse and mango cubes. A pity the one who wanted the cake found it too simple and didn't want it anymore. 

Such a waste of my time and effort. Which reminds me that I should take more caution in future when baking for others. After all, I'm not a worm in anyone's belly, knowing what they want exactly without them mentioning explicitly so is not my forte! But it's okay! It's still a good lesson learnt! And thankfully, this cake fed a few happy people like Sharron, Wendy, the girls and even Yvonne! (: it's always good to be a blessing to others! 

That aside, I really love these Red Velvet Roses!!! 

They're so pretty that I'm almost tempted enough to bake them as Christmas gifts this year! (: 

Anyway, today was cleanup day. I brought some of my personal belongings over to the HTB's place before we headed to settle the balloons for our big day! That's like 3 boxes of stuff! XD 

We then headed to One Party Store in Bedok Reservoir just opposite my mum's new place! It was amazing. I was like a kid let loose in a candy store! We managed to settle quite a number of lovely items for dolling up our dinner venue. I saw many pretty cupcake stands and baby shower balloons (I just love them!). Those paper dollies that are printed in polka dots are still on my mind. 

I'm just such a fan of balloons actually. In fact, I'm always grabbing balloons from road shows and making them smaller so that I can carry them around! So I'm really glad that we're gonna have balloons for our wedding dinner! After all, the venue is indeed a little "blah". 

We then cleaned the house and I'm so in love with the MIL's awesome super duper expensive but awesome like mad vacuum cleaner. Makes me almost tempted enough to want one for our new home. 

Speaking of which, I redeemed two new stock pots from WMF based on the NTUC promotion! 

Truly blessed to be blessed with many bonus coupons by the HTB's aunties and mummy! So here's one stock pot for our new home and another one for mummy. 

We've scrubbed the walls of the bedroom clean today and we're gonna paint the room tomorrow. I'm really excited for the events that are coming right up! (: 

School's out!

School's out! Today marks the end of our work week... I'm truly glad that after 1.5 weeks of work week, it has finally come to an end. 

We got to know our deployment for next year. I'm gonna be the form teacher of a p3 class! (: truly excited! 

With the end of the work week, I headed for the ice cream place near the school for waffles and ice cream while waiting for the HTB to meet me and also for the sinseh to open. I fell down having lost balance from walking in my wedges on Saturday. My knee was bruised and my right shoulder was hurting having used my wrist to break my ball. It's been hurting ever since. A trip to the sinseh is like a nightmare from hell. He cracked my neck and shoulder, poked two needles into me and cracked my upper body even more. Even the medication he gave me was horrid. I'm just hoping that it gets better this weekend. 

Just yesterday, I worked on more of our wedding invites and also did some buntings for the wedding! 

I really love the prints and colours for our wedding! (: 

I'm gonna date my mum for lunch tomorrow and do more shopping (; 

On Thursday and Friday, we're gonna paint the HTB's house! Excited cos it'll be my first time painting a house! Wheeeeee!

Shall update soon! (: 

I love to shop a little too much!

This silly post was meant for Saturday night 23 Nov 2013! 

I confess. I love to shop. I really love to shop. And with the wedding prep and house coming along, I'm kinda glad I have legitimate reasons to shop! 

Yesterday morning, I reached home to be welcomed by 4 large packages from my taobao shopping. I had so much fun unpacking my packages! 

I got plenty of stuff! Pillows, soft toy, baking stuff and even a luggage! 

I also received the flowers I got for my bridesmaid and flower girl! I then "dolled up" the "stems" for the wedding (: 

Shopping can indeed be addictive. 

Anyway, to back track, after the release of PSLE Results on Friday, a few of us headed to J-pot for lunch before the BBQ night in school. 

I must say that the porridge based soup was rather interesting! 

I'm blessed with great friends at work (:

On Friday night, our loved ones were invited to join us at the BBQ party our principal and vice-principal threw for us. The HTB joined me at the party. It was pretty amusing how the HTB was kinda taking a walk down memory lane when he was in school. After all, he was a student in the school I'm teaching at! 

It amuses me even more how his ex form teacher is gonna share our joy for our big day with two roles: his ex form teacher and my colleague! 

Anyway, as the work week winds down a little with the "big bang" happening on Tuesday, I'm diving into the wedding prep. There's still seemingly a lot to do but with the luxury of time, I am indeed having a lot of fun. 

The only headache right now probably is to pack my place for shifting. I'm a pack rat. I have accumulated so much stuff over the years that I haven't really even had the space to store my belongings. I probably don't really even know what I have! Having to shift to the HTB's before our place is ready poses as yet another challenge. I do suppose that I have to be more hard hearted and toss out more stuff than I want to. I may sell some of the items that are still in great condition that I can't afford to keep. Some I may also give away or donate to the needy. 

With so much to do, I'm just really excited for December! (: 

I love Rainbows!

I love Rainbows! This is probably due to my love for all things colourful. I returned home today after a week (well almost) at the htb's place as I really dread the travelling to work and it didn't help that I was suppose to have a long work week this week. 

Not having to travel to work in Tampines from Serangoon Gardens everyday sure is bliss. 

As I had to work on a cake this evening despite having been sick earlier this morning due to food poisoning, I was glad that I got better after the doctor's prescribed medication and my MIL's century egg porridge cooked with love! I really love her century egg porridge but it's like "sick food". Nevertheless, I still like it anyway! I should ask of her to teach me how to cook it! 

Anyway, I baked this two tiered Hello Kitty Cake today (: 

I really love the pretty ruffles I was playing with! 

Not forgetting the 7 colours I used in this rainbow cake! I'm also really excited to announce that I'll be sharing a video tutorial for a rainbow cake soon! (: keep a lookout for it! 

Cakes aside, I'm really glad and excited that our new place is progressing real well! The front has been partially painted. If all go well, we'll get our keys by 3Q next year! Excited much!

Today, after the visit to the doctor, I spotted these adorable Hello Kitty water bottles in Giant! I just couldn't resist and got one for myself and one for my mil (: 

To backtrack, we prepared most of our wedding invites earlier this week! Billy and I truly thankful for friends and loved ones who replied us promptly for us to mail the invites to them... And I really really really love the invites Ana designed for us! Like really really really love it! XD 

As I was mentioning, I've been staying with the HTB and his family. Being away from home not only makes me miss my family but also my kitchen! I decided to borrow my mil's kitchen and made some Tiramisu! I really love how tall the tiramisu  got! (: 

Maybe I ought to do a video tutorial for a tiramisu too... Speaking of which, I should get a decent tripod stand shouldn't I? That way, I can do so many more video tutorials! 

There's so much I wish to do and wanna do and I'm actually getting quite hooked to producing video tutorials.... How do you like them? Or do you prefer the step by step image tutorials? Drop me a comment and let me know what you think!

Till then, tata! (: c

Cynthia's Red Velvet Roses Cupcake

I made these Red Velvet Roses Cupcakes for my wedding helpers over the weekend. Indeed, we have been blessed with loads of help from friends and loved ones in the midst of our wedding preparations.

I also embarked on my first video tutorial for baked goodies. Hopefully all of you like the video tutorials I've been doing! (: In any case, this is a classic Red Velvet Cupcake recipe that I did a twist to. It takes about 2 hours in all to bake this and I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5. 

Cynthia's Strawberry Delight Cheesecake (no-bake)

This recipe for Strawberry Delight is sure to wow your guests as the pretty insides of strawberries are used to line the sides of the cake. This recipe is also relatively simple as it is does not require baking. I'd rate it a difficult level 3 out of 5 and it takes about 2 hour 30 minutes to 'bake'. 

This slice is just so pretty isn't it? (:

Alce Nero Cooking Workshop (9 Nov 2013)

Last Saturday, I had the honour to be invited for the Alce Nero Cooking Workshop at the Food Playground with a 12 other bloggers! Even though I did not have much understanding nor impression of Alce Nero before the event, I got to learn much more through this event. 

All dolled up for the event! 

We gathered at Food Playground located near Tanjong Pagar MRT. Located on level 2 of an old school shophouse, the Food Playground is a small cosy cooking school that allows for food lovers to gather and learn how to cook! The kitchen it well equipped with bright cheery coloured pots, pans and what nots, the kind that I like! (: 12 of us were split into groups of 4 to work on 2 dishes.

They had really lovely orange aprons! A colour I'm considering for my kitchen and also the kitchen-aid I'm waiting to get for my new place! We even got to customise our chef's hats... having hats on ensures that cleanliness is maintained in the kitchen! 

Alce Nero started about 30 years ago by two young Italian farmers with the aim of  producing wholesome foods while respecting the environment. If you know me, you'd know that Organic food is like a good to have, but not a must to me due to the costly price tag that comes along with it. But having realised that Alce Nero's products are organic and are really affordable (prices are almost as competitive as other pasta brands off the rack), it made me quite happy XD 

To begin with, I must say that I HATE spaghetti. Penne, Fusilli, Linguine etc I love, but I hate spaghetti. There's just something about how common it is and it's rod-like shape that I dislike. I'm just odd. We were to cook a dish of fusion Laksa Pesto Pasta for the cook-off and I was sceptical at first.. it was only when I ate it at the end of the event did I realise that I actually I liked it! It's not just the flavour from the pesto etc but this brand of spaghetti actually made me happy! It's one of the rare occasions that I actually took Spaghetti and liked it! I think I have found a brand of spaghetti that I would actually eat! (:

Anyway, we learned how to cook a Laksa Pesto Pasta as well as bake 2 types of pizza using a method of proofing a quick dough! I am totally in love with this method of proofing/working with the dough as it means that I get to eat almost traditional Italian pizzas in the comfort of my home with lesser time needed for the dough! I can't wait to try this method at home... After all, I love to feed people and the freebies Alce Nero has blessed me with will allow me to feed my family and loved ones for quite a while! 

Enough of my rambling, let me show you some snapshots of what we did that very morning (:

Learning how to prepare the pizza dough with dry yeast.

This method of pizza dough preparation is unique and it prevents us from over working the dough... I can't wait to share this method with you soon! My brain is bursting with the possible flavours of pizzas I can do. Also, I learned that I am actually quite comfortable with working the dough with my hands. Odd but true. Then again, I love to do hand-folding of cake batter using my hand! Not much of a wonder why I actually like using my hands for this dough!

After the demo, we were sent to our stations to work on our dishes. See what I mean? So beautifully coloured!!! (: 

Here's me and my team that day! (: I think I looked drunken that morning.. why was I so pink!? HAHAH! 

Anyway, we had a Q&A contest to see which team gets to pick their pizza ingredients first. We weren't as "kiasu" as other teams so we got the last pick. The key ingredient we had was canned tuna in water as compared to sardines etc that the other 2 groups had. However, that was just the tray my team mates and I were eyeing! We were secretly happy! XD

Here's me working the pizza dough!

My team mates busy at work...

The pesto sauce we cooked up! (: This smelled so good. And to think I HATE pesto that we take in restaurants. 

Our tray of goodies. Oh yes, see that bowl of red wrinkly thing in a bowl? That's the sun-dried tomatoes that Alec Nero carries.. Those babies tasted so good in the pizza we made.. I have wicked plans for it to be part of my upcoming Focaccia recipe... (: 

Co-cooking can be really fun! It's like tapping on the expertise of those involved.. With that, my team and I present these three dishes! 

  

Laksa Pesto Pasta.

Mushroom & capsicum tomato pizza as well as a Tuna Pesto pizza! Love how rustic looking these pizzas are!! Looking at these photos again makes me salivate!!! 

Here's us with our beautiful dishes! (: We had a great feast after that! 

My team and I ended up winning the cook off with our pizza! We were blessed with a hamper each on top of the generous goody bag filled with goodies that Alce Nero had already blessed us with! 

Here's all the goodies excluding a bag of spaghetti and tomato paste that I've given to Sharron as well as one bottle of tomato paste that I broke when I fell down later that evening. I'm a truly blessed girl! Can't wait to cook with these awesome ingredients! 

After the event, I headed off to The Rice Table with my heavy gifts to meet Sharron for lunch! I'm truly thankful for her cake which I treat like a storage space so often.. I chucked the heavy items in her car and we went shopping!! 

I was kinda unwell later that evening so I headed to Sharron's to laze and rest. I fell down on my way up to her place (I've not fallen down for years!!) but I'm really glad that it was a fruitful day. 

Alce Nero has made me a very happy girl and a very happy girl I am! (: