Blueberry Diapercake

Had a last minute project on Sunday.

Why last minute? Because the request came only about 3 hours before it was needed. *Doink*

Luckily I had some spare stuffs over the previous shopping spree and they happened to be in blue - just perfect for a baby boy.

The overall look

    From the side

Backview

 The little tag-card to go along with the cake

Ready to go!!!

I have just finished a 3-tiered cake last night . It was quite a challenge towards the end when I had to assemble the top tier. But in the end, it was rather pretty! (Heh...totally self-praise...)

I should be adding the finishing touches tonight and have it delivered on Friday.

Ooohhh.... I have another order coming in , dealing with a green-white theme. A refreshing change!

I love doing this ... if only I can make this my full time job.... Hmmmmm.....



Reasons why I don't blog

Well, if you ever noticed, I have been really slow in blogging the past few weeks.

Yes, I have been real busy with the prelim markings, setting of exam papers, preparing my students for a public performance and the usual work - life routine.

But there are some other reasons why I choose not to blog. Some may be acceptable but sometimes, I just wish I have more discipline to blog!

1) There is always the option of doing something else

  
When I have time to spare, though it doesn't come often, I can always blog BUT sometimes , I just choose to do something else. It could be reading a book , surfing the Net or watching the TV. I can just be  a slacker and not use the brains ( yeah... forming sentences to blog etc actually works the brain). Notice that I don't sleep. I don't like to sleep unless absolutely necessary - eg: if I am going out at night or I am just totally fried.

2) I have a burning issue on hand but I am not sure if I dare to address it. 

This happened once or twice. There was once I really wanted to blog about gays and another time about racial issues. I was trying to figure out a more diplomatic way to go about writing because at that time, I felt so strongly for the issue but I did not want to come across as offensive. I guess  I just got tired and forgot about it. Wished I am as brave as Xiaxue and just shoot!

3) Procastination. 

This is the absolute worst! Why? Because I drafted the above last Thursday and today is already MOnday. I actually allowed 5 days to pass just like that....


Grrrr..... so now u know why , if I seem to disappear.... 

Cough Remedies

I have been coughing rather terribly for the past month, ever since I caught the flu bug then.

It has been pretty bad.... I need to use my voice a lot in my profession (no, I am not a singer. Can't sing for nuts!) and it can be really hurting and irritating when I have to stop and cough every now and then .

There is no phlegm but it is those kind of 'hard-core' cough whereby I feel as if the whole chest / breathing system is going to explode. When I went to the doctors, the medicines did not differ much and did not seem to have much of an effect.

No choice but to go on MC today. I don't think I can go on today...

Anyway, was looking for cough remedies online. There are some interesting ones :)

1) Rub Vaporubs on the soles of your feet during night sleep. It will stop the coughing.

I have no idea if there is a biological reason behind this but my husby does try this on me. It probably works for the night but my cough seems to come back.

2)Sit in a bathroom with the shower on high heat. Also, try drinking lemon water with honey, it's very soothing.

Tried the latter , not bad. It is soothing. Not sure about the former.

3) Gargling with salt water.

I thought that is for ulcers?

4) PLace a glass of watermelon juice on your head and jump ten times. The ability to balance and jump is supposed to cure the passage way.

HUH???

5) Take ginger root, slice it and press on the slices with a spoon to get the juice out and take mix that juice with a little bit of honey. Or make tea with ginger.

Doesn't sound good to me. But maybe, quite bearable.

Which of these do you think will work?

While you figure that out, I'll go continue with my coughing .... * uh - hukkkk*

Kids and technology

TSK .

On one hand, I am impressed with how kids nowadays are so tech-savvy.

On the other hand, it can get pretty scary. At such a young , tender age, they are already so updated with using iphones, laptops, ipads etc ... challenges ahead must be way tougher than what the older generation had in their childhood days.

Just take my darling nephew as an example.He is not even 2 yrs old yet, one of his favourite pastimes would be to surf through his youtube videos. Heck, he even has his own folder where we parked all his favourite videos. He knows how to maneuver around with his mums iphone - just tell him which application you want and he will know how to locate , open and start it.

Sometime back , I was doing some verbal spelling with him - such as I.B.U for Ibu (mum), LOCK ( he sees this word in the car all the time ), ABAH (dad) and some others when I decided to carry on with the spelling on Microsoft Word. I enlarged the fonts and started to type out the letters and spelled out with him  (yup, this boy knows the whole alphabet by heart!).

A few days ago, we were at the PC , about to embark on his daily dosage of "Five Little Ducks" (on youtube) when he started pressing the letters to those few words he knows how to spell. So clever! We spent quite some time on this .... and now, he is happy to spell everything that he sees - whether the spelling is correct or not , it doesn't matter! Eg: A PNJ PKP - APPLE! And he would just continue 'spelling' things . FUNNY.

Anyway , back to kids and technology , we were doing some Hari Raya shopping last month. After about 4 hours of walking , he got pretty tired and actually sat down on the floor. While resting, he took my brother's handphone and did this...

He actually said," 1, 2, 3 ...SMILE!" and snapped

his own portrait.

I am sure he is not the only kid around who does this. One of my colleagues even bought a laptop for her 2 year-old son!

GOSH. KIDS nowadays.

These are some of the camwhoring / other photos he took . He likes his right foot a lot.

LOL.

His right and left feet on different occasions.

One of the common victims of his photography ...heheh...

Camwhoring

Getting the daily dosage of his favourite pastime

Sometimes, I find it a little scary with the way kids and technology go. Somehow, I think I prefer my simpler childhood :)

How was yours?

MENDAK......

It has not been a very eventful Hari Raya for me this year.

For the first time ever in my life, I only celebrated on the first day despite it being a Friday.

Yes, I could have gone visiting on Saturday and Sunday , just like everyone else. BUt where were we?

We were at home , furiously marking the prelim papers. Yes, furiously. That was the only thing we did from morning till night .

Pathetic, yah?

But I had a good time meeting relatives on the first day. Shall just let you feast your eyes on the photos....

And oh yes ... this year, we decided to go PURPLE!

Well, there are many other photos but mainly stored in bro's phone.

Anyway , we must finish as much work as we can this week so that we can go out the whole of this coming weekend. I don't care!!!!

81 HIts? Who who who?

Since I am no popular blogger, my daily readership averages on 20 or so.

So imagine my huge shock when I checked my blogpatrol and found out that I had 81 hits for today!

Who are you , 'hitters'? I hope it is not some stalker....hehhehe...

You know, I did have a stalker a few years back. And I tell you , it was FREAKY and SCARY. It is like, every single movement of mine seemed to be sniffed by that person....it was definitely not a very good experience.

Back to my 81 hits, I really wonder who these people are. Based on the records, they are mainly from Singapore and the United States. Woo hoo!

Maybe they accidentally chanced upon my blog... but then , who cares? Hit me more! :)

A Kate Spade fan

 I am stuck at home today instead of going Hari Raya visiting BECAUSE of work obligations.

Crap.

Anyway, I got bored and decided to go to my favourite website, katespade.com.

I don't know why . After shoes, I love bags .  I don't go for designer bags actually... anything that catches my eyes and are worthwhile investments (be it short term or long term), I would consider buying.

Of all brands though , Kate Spade is my favourite. It is chic, funky and youthful. I even have a pink Kate Spade pencil case - with KS pencils and erasers to boot! Haha....

But I am not rich enough to splurge all the time so whenever I am bored and tired, I drop by the website to just look from afar ... :P

And that's what I did during my short break just now! These bags sure caught my attention.

metalllic london small coal

Isn't this amazing? You can bring 

it on a casual outing with girlfriends

or even to a hot date on Friday night.

 

book of the month clutch

Yup, it's a clutch! How cute 

and chic! I think this would look

great with jeans or a simple plain 

dress.

bows art lizard maryanne

This is my absolute favourite! I love the silver 

on the bag and its texture. The ribbon adds a 

sweet twist to the whole look. I can think of many

occasions on which I'll carry it. Ok, if anyone 

is thinking of getting me a bag for my birthday,

PLEASE CONSIDER THIS!  Haha.......

splodge dot large tate

Hmmm....I think I have this thing 

for bows, no? Anyway, they have this in 

purple as well. 

five points camille 

I like the fact that it is formal enough to

bring to work yet, in a bright and chirpy 

colour. It'll probably be good for semi-formal 

outings/ events as well. I actually saw a similar 

Prada one before... but Prada is a bit too 

expensive ah....

See? Now I am happy again ... I feel a little more recharged to go on with work. Or maybe, I should just go on dreaming about these gorgeous bags first....

Salam Aidilfitri!

We were at my parents' place on Hari Raya eve and I asked my dad if he had any sparklers.

I remember Montel was really afraid of them last year but I wanted to see if he has become braver now that he is almost 2 yrs old.

Check out the super cute video!

Wishing every Muslim Salam Aidilfitri!

And to the rest , enjoy your holidays ... :)

Rushing!

I know I have not been blogging the past few days.

It has been rather crazy with housework, schoolwork , Hari Raya preparations and many other nonsense.

Cannot breathe!

I will be back soon .

I promise :)

Twitter - Lost!

Yeah , I know I am a little slow but I have just set up a twitter account.

Now I am facing two problems, one to do with mobile tweets and the other is my blog layout.

Question 1
I am using a Samsung smartphone with data plan/WIFI. How do I send mobile tweets? I know with blackberry and iPhone , there're applications for it but not my phone. I understand there is an SMS system but when I went under the Twitter mobile SMS settings, Singapore is not under the list.

So how? Does this mean I cannot tweet using mobile phone unless I change phone?

Question 2
I tried to put the Twitter scrollbar onto my blog. Somehow, I get the colours right and all ...but no text appears. Look >>>

It is just a blank box. I have no idea what went worng because I simple followed intsructions and copy n paste the html codes.

I hope there are some kind souls / Twitter experts who would be able to help :)

Drop a comment or email me at laalaatubby@yahoo.com

Happy MOnday!

Do marriage and divorce come together?

Why did I get married?

Why do people get married?

My first few dating months with husby (who was then my boyfriend) were happy moments yet, shaky and insecure at the same time. We separated, only to decide to be together again nine months after the break-up. Nine months is a pretty long time , in my opinion, to decide to retract the decision.

However, it was during those nine torturous months that I realised he was the only man  I wanted to be with. I could not imagine spending my old days with anyone else. So far , I feel that getting married to him is the best thing that has ever happened in my life.

So, I get very disturbed when I hear about divorce. Just this year alone, I have heard/seen divorces among people I know. And it hurts.

Many cite irreconcilable differences - so Chinese drama, right? And these cases I know involve people of various age groups with different lengths of marriage period. The shortest is about one year of marriage.

I am not sure where I stand on this case.

For older couples , perhaps the extra responsibilties that come with kids and the ever increasing expenses, stuffs at work or just being BORED with the other half and looking for greener pasture , could be the reasons. Not very acceptable ones though... but I was just trying to come up with excuses.

But to get divorced in 6 months? 1 year? Didn't you guys date? Shouldn't all couples learn to know each other better before taking the huge plunge to get hitched?

I mean , not being able to withstand your partner's snores or squeezing toothpaste in a way not yours hardly justifies irreconcilable differences. It must be something more serious, right?

The latest case I heard is a year marriage that crumbled because the wife was not able to accomodate to the husband's low salary. The man brings home , probably about $1500 max, and does OT often just so to provide for his new family (wife). Apparently, she wanted more and got upset when he was not able to fulfil her wishes. I know there might be other more serious reasons (like no time for her since he works so hard) but seriously? What kind of dumb excuse is that? She knows the guy does not earn much all this while . She, herself, was just working in a fast-food outlet... so shouldn't she understand the need for them to live a simple life? Shouldn't she appreciate the husband's efforts to better their lives?

I just don't get it. It was barely one year.

On the other hand, I have friends who do not believe in marriage. They date , some cohabit, some do not .... but they stick by each other. To them, marriage is just a piece of paper. If one is really committed to the partner, one more certificate in the collection makes no difference.

Well, although I am someone who feels that marriage should be the goal of (serious) dating couples, I respect those people with such mindsets. I mean , with no official commitments, it is even easier to stray , isn't it? But these few people I know have proven many wrong with their high level of commitment to their partners.

My point is , if you are not ready , then don't sign!

It seems that marriage is taken like a game and there have been more than a few cases of people (that I know of) who get hitched and divorced at whims ! Sigh....

I pray for all loving couples out there (ourselves too!) - may our love blossom even more with each passing year and may we learn to appreciate our loved ones .

Some people cannot even be with their loved ones, you know.

Getting ready for Eid

Will you look at that?

Those bags are filled with ingredients and items needed for me to embark on my baking journey.

Yeah, you heard me right!

I am going to bake the Hari Raya cookies by myself, this year.

No, I am no expert at baking ...in fact you can count with less than 5 fingers the number of times I have baked in my entire life.

But, husby bought a Baby Belling oven early this year and I have only used it twice. Last year, most of the Raya goodies in the house were given by my mum and his sister. Thus, I promise that I shall do them by myself.

OF course I am not going to do ALL on my own! Haha... that can only happen if I quit and become a housewife . LOL. I still have the prelims papers to mark during the Sept hols (Hari Raya is also during the hols! Die lah!)

I shall just aim to bake 3 different types ... or 2 ... we shall see how it goes.

Let's pray they will be pleasant-looking and edible !

Good luck to me (and those who will be eating them cookies ) !