Daiso - Crafts galore

I visited Daiso recently to purchase sewing thread. Needless to say, I walked out of the store with more than thread in my basket! The wide array of craft materials was a feast for my eyes but bad for my pocket. The aisle and aisle of items were mesmerizing! The pictures speak for themselves.

Colored thread

Pearl head pins

Googly eyes and buttons

Black thread

Purse handles

Bag straps

Elastic bands

Bag handles

Purse frames

Synthetic leather bag handles

Zippers

Furkids - Daily routine

My furkids have a pretty standard daily routine. They wake up at 6:30AM with me - Ronny would automatically go to the litter box while Truffle wait outside my bathroom while I wash up. She will meow incessantly till I get out to pet her. After dressing up, I'll pet the furkids (approx. 5 minutes) before rushing out. They spend most of the day sleeping on our bed or at their favorite hideouts. (We came to know this on occasions when we stayed at home) When dusk falls, the furkids will hang out near the main door to anticipate our return. Usually we will be home by 7:00PM if we do not have plans for the evening. Ronny and Truffle at the door to greet us and demand for pets. They have dinner at 7:30PM and spend the rest of the evening playing before retiring to bed by 9:00PM. The cycle continues the next day. There's something comforting about having pets at home. Everyday I look forward to rushing home to spend time with them. I'll automatically forget about the bad day at work or any other stresses. Maybe I've come to embrace my inner "Crazy-Cat-Lady".

Truffle & Ronny cuddling on our bed.

Truffle watching Korean drama while I fold laundry in the guest room.

Grass eating time.

Ronny climbing into my closet.

Ronny dozing off in my closet

Truffle sleeping on my pillow.

Truffle drinking from a fish bowl.

Leather anniversary

Tim and I will be celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary next month. I used to think that married life is not very different from dating, but boy was I wrong! We did not have squabbles over lift-the-toilet-seat or capping-the-toothpaste issues, but we had our fair share of fights over ridiculous or mundane things. For example, Tim dislikes me standing beside him when he cooks, he cannot tolerate tardiness and often chides me for buying too many things. On the other hand, I dislike him leaving dirty dishes in the sink overnight, I find it difficult to accept his overly thrifty habits and unhealthy food choices, and often admonish him for the dishevelled state of his hobby room. The 3 years of marriage did not cause me to miraculously accept his idiosyncrasies and bad habits (which I still dislike). It's not happening now, and unlikely in the future too. 

Instead, the 3 years of marriage taught me more about myself. Surely I can't be wrong for wanting a cleaner home environment, wanting him to be healthier, wanting gratification though retail therapy, wanting to dress up more nicely for him...Surely I have the best intentions! It is all because I love him! Right? Surely other wives could identify with my struggles for wanting the best for their spouse. Indignantly, this went on for some time. 

I don't know what prompted me to gradually discover how careless my words are towards Tim. Maybe it's divine intervention. Maybe it's my conscience. Although he never confronted me about my approach or speech, I came to realize that in wanting to meet certain intentions or expectations, I unwittingly choose the harshest words to bring across my point. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with harboring good intentions for our loved ones. I was shocked to realize how unabashed I was in being the opposite of gentle and patient. In preserving my pride, I often could find an excuse to justify my actions. Whatever happened to the virtuous of the wife from Proverbs 31 that I aspired to be? Or the promise (wedding vow) I made to be his best friend all the days of his life? 

The 3 years of marriage taught me that I am capable of being selfish and prideful in achieving what I want. The 3 years of marriage taught me that loving Tim and accepting him for who he is often involve me taking up my own cross. Daily. It involves constantly choosing to love the other person more than oneself. It entails personal sacrifice. Nobody told me it was going to be this hard. No one told me I would continuously stumble and fail. The 3 years of marriage taught me that I need Jesus more than ever. I need His strength and grace to take up my own cross. Daily. I'm not perfect, but I need Jesus to help me protect and love my spouse like wife from Proverbs 31. There is no way I can do it with my own strength.

In the West, there is a tradition of giving leather to partners in the 3rd anniversary to celebrate the durability of the relationship. You can read about the tradition here. Apart from it's natural durability, leather needs frequent care to maintain its permanence and quality. I suppose it like marriages too. The durability of a relationship is also dependent on the tender loving care that partners invest in the each others' lives. I pray we will learn and practice this all the days of our lives.

Effects of palm oil

I have been thinking and discussing the effects of palm oil with my husband for months. We noted that palm oil commonly found in contents of food that are readily available in the supermarket. Just to name a few: coffee mix, cereals, bread, baked goods, snacks, toiletries etc. We both read reports about the benefits and adverse effects of palm oil. Since palm oil is commonly found in groceries that we frequently use, it got us concerned how it impacts our health.

WWF reported that larged areas of tropical forests have been cleared for oil palm plantations. This results in destruction of natural habitats and eviction of forest-dwelling indigenous peoples. Other sources cited the call to avoid palm oil is a trade ploy to curb palm oil's competitive and major share in the food industry. Another source quoted that palm oil us useful for preventing vitamin A deficiency, cancer, brain disease, aging and even useful for the treatment of Malaria and Hypertension. The source also noted that, palm oil could possibly interact with medications that slow blood clotting. (Anticoagulant / Antiplatelet drugs) Or perhaps there are insufficient scientific studies or evidence to proof the detrimental effects or benefits of palm oil.

I'm undecided on this. Perhaps like the old saying goes "Moderation is key".

Sources about palm oil as at 17 April 2015:
WWF - Environmental & social impacts of palm oil production
Sustainable palm oil platform - Environmental and social effects
NCBI - Effects of palm oil on cardiovascular risk
WebMd - Uses, side effects of palm oil
Sciencebasedmedicine.org - The Dr Oz red palm oil (non) miracle

Hakka Abacus Seeds 客家算盘子

Abacus seeds (the Taro ones) are unique to Hakka cuisine. My ancestral family originated from Dabu county in Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, China. Coincidentally, my husband's maternal family also originate from the same region.

When I was a kid, my grandmother would prepare Hakka abacus seeds every Chinese New Year (CNY). Hakka abacus seeds resembles the actual abacus board. The latter was used like a calculator in the past.  Hakkas prepare this dish  to signify wealth and abundance. I love the rich flavour of this dish and every family has their own special recipe.

For nostalgia sake, I'm recording my attempt at recreating this family dish.

My family's Hakka abacus seed recipe
(Serves 6-8 pax)

Ingredients:
1kg Yam or Taro
200g Tapioca flour

4 cloves of  garlic, finely chopped
200g minced meat (I used pork, but it can be substituted with any protein of your choice)
100g dried squid, julienne
200g dried mushrooms (soaked in water for an hour), julienne
1.5 tablespoon cooking oil
1 tablespoon dried shrimps
1 tablespoon light soya sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon shaoxing wine (Chinese cooking wine)
A dash of white pepper


Method
1. Peel the skin of the yam/taro and cut them into cubes.
2. Boil the yam/taro for 15-20 minutes in a pot, until soft. (Use a fork to prick the yam. If it pricks through easily, it is cooked)

Boil the yam/taro in hot water

NOTE: The following processes have to be done while the yam/taro is hot. Do wear a pair of gloves if you need.

3. While the cooked yam/taro is hot, mash them in a large bowl with a fork or potato masher.
4. Add in the tapioca flour to the mashed yam/taro immediately, and mix well into a dough

Yam/taro dough

5. Grab handfuls of dough and shape them into balls. Each ball should be the size of a small walnut.
6.  Press the centre to obtain an abacus-shaped dough.
7. Cook the abacus seed dough in hot boiling water. When they are cooked through, the dough will float to the surface of the pot.
8. Remove the abacus seeds from the pot with a sieve and transfer them into an ice water bath immediately. Soak for 5-10 minutes.
9. Drain and transfer the cooled abacus seeds to a clean bowl and mix with a table spoon of oil (to prevent them from sticking together).

Shape the dough into abacus seeds

Boil the seeds in hot boiling water until they float to the surface

 10. Add half a tablespoon of oil into a frying pan. Turn on the fire to medium heat.
11. Add chopped garlic, shrimps and dried squid to the frying pan after the oil is hot.
12. Stir-fry the mixture till fragrant. Add the minced meat and stir-fry till the meat is partially cooked.
13. Add the abacus seed to the mixture and stir fry for 5 minutes.
14. Add soya sauce, fish sauce, pepper and shaoxing wine to the mixture. Stir-fry till the minced meat is well cooked.
15. Viola! Transfer the abacus seeds to a nice serving plate/bowl. Serve while it is hot. (The abacus seeds could store up to 1 week in the refrigerator too)

Hakka Abacus seeds

Kin Soon Company - Minton Ribbons

One of my favorite craft shops in Singapore is Kin Soon Company, a.k.a Minton Ribbons. Tucked in at quiet end of Arab street, it is a gem to behold. Click here to visit their site. Minton has a good  humongous selection of ribbons and accompanying craft materials. All colors and patterns imaginable. I can never leave the shop empty handed. My latest trip to Kin Soon was to purchase ribbons for a friend's wedding decor. The theme of the wedding was Rainbow. I spent hours scoring through pictures on google and pinterest to get ideas. I wanted to create a colorful and elegant palette, that does not scream carnival or kiddish. At the shop, while standing at one of the ribbon aisle trying to find the best color combination, the owner of the shop came to my rescue. She asked me the theme of the wedding. Within minutes, she effortlessly picked 6 colors. With a wink, she said it will surely work. She proceeded to line the rows of ribbons in a line and let the ends fall lose. With confidence, she asked what I thought of the selection. Needless to say, I was bought over. She then shared her invaluable experience of color matching and the wedding trends she observed over the years. The whole shopping experience at Kin Soon was lovely and memorable. I can't wait to return and meet the wonderful lady and her team again.

Kin Soon Company aka Minton Ribbons

The colors for the wedding. Left to right - Red, lime green, cream, cyan, purple and pink

Gateway to the aisle

Reception table with a ribbon frame

The aisle

6th month with kitties

April marks the 6th month that we adopted our cats. They are have been an endless bundle of joy. It took us some time to understand their antics and habits. Soon a routine was established around our schedules.

5:00AM Kitties wake us up to demand for food. They usually jump on us till one of us wakes up. Timmy is the one who usually gets up to feed them.

6:30AM We get up to start the day - Set aside more food for the kitties, change their water bowl, clear the kitty litter and prepare for work.

7:15AM On days when we're lucky, we leave by 7:15 AM to avoid the morning traffic. Else we rush out by 7:30 (absolute latest!)

7:45AM Timmy drops me at the train station and we both head to our respective work stations

6:00PM Both of us end work around the same time. Usually we meet outside for dinner before heading home or one of us get ingredients from a supermarket and head home to prepare dinner

7:30PM Kittie's dinner time! They usually demand for cuddles or attention after dinner.

8:30PM Wash up, catch up on readings or housework

10:30PM We're ready for bed and would update each other about the plans for the next day or chat about any other random stuff before falling asleep by 11 or 12.

Having these 2 little ones make me realize how tough it must be for working moms to take care of their kids, sans helper! There are days when I'm exhausted and could only leave the housework or laundry to the weekends or days when I wish to stay out later for a date night but choose not to because of our cats. Kudos to moms who insist on taking care of their children and household by themselves. Although the demands of caring for pets and children are rather different, I believe the level of commitment is similar. Despite steering away from our carefree lifestyles, I wouldn't trade these "inconvenience" for anything. I love my cats.

For more information about adopting cats, you could check out these 2 amazing organizations:

Cat Welfare Society

SPCA

Gazing out of the window on a rainy day

Caught in action! Kitties jumping on us till we wake up

Ronny chilling out on the dining chair

Truffle with her teddy

Cat tree trauma

Truffle is a playful cat. Being only 6 months old, she loves to explore and play with everything in the house. One of her favorite spot was the newly purchased cat tree. It has dangling elements which she loves to paw and bite. We were glad she loves to play on the cat tree until one evening when her paw was caught tangled with one of the dangling elements. It must have hurt terribly as she hissed and meowed in agony! Thankfully, we were able to free her with a pair of scissors and she has avoided the cat tree ever since. I'm grateful that the incident took place when T and I were at home and we were able to help her. This incident taught us to be more cautious when choosing fixtures and toys for our furkids.

Truffle on the cat tree

New appliance - Stand Mixer!

Stand mixers don't come cheap. One with a strong motor and sturdy attachments typically cost SGD 500 - 1000+. We deliberated on which to purchase for 4 months! Many evenings were occupied with reading reviews about mixers, visiting departmental shops to watch live demonstrations and checking out prices and deals. I was totally mesmerized with the design of a Kitchenaid and bowled over by the functions of a Kenwood K-mix. One moment I preferred the Kitchenaid, the next, I was swayed by the specs of the K-mix. Factoring in the cost, we even considered a hand-held mixer. I remember watching a few episodes of Frenchguycooking, Rachel Khoo's, Jamie Oliver's and Raymond Blanc's videos to see which one is best suited for our needs. Finally... we purchased the K-mix because of the bigger capacity of the bowl and a stronger motor. Garlic herb bread was the first item we made with the K-mix. The dough hook was superb! It kneaded the dough perfectly with minimum effort. Subsequent experiments include cranberry brownies with Bailey's whipped cream, cranberry bread and more to come.

Kenwood - K-mix

Adoption story

Since a young age, I always wanted to keep a pet. My parents never warmed up to the idea. Eventually, they kept a fish tank with a variety of ornamental fishes (on their own accord). I remember rushing to the front of the tank to feed the fishes after school, but I never did felt any sense of attachment to the fishes. This Aug, after T and I moved in to our own place, we decided to adopt a dog and a cat. (just like Garfield and Odie) Purchasing pets from a pet shop was never an option for us as we always wanted to give rescued animals a forever home.

Like anxious parents, we devoted many evenings preparing the house, making it as pet-friendly as possible and reading about animal care and behavior. We deliberated over which to adopt first, a cat or a dog and spent a few weeks visiting animal shelters. Finally, we adopted a white-black domestic short-fur cat, Ronny. Soon, we discovered that he has a timid personality and would do well with a cat companion rather than a dog. Hence, we took in his best mate from the same shelter - Truffle.
They have settled well in our home and we look forward to share more about them in future posts.

Truffle and Ronny

Our New Home! (edited)

Before getting married, T and I applied for a Build-To-Order (BTO) flat through Singapore's Housing-Development-Board (HDB). The duration of the application and completion of an apartment is approximately 3-4 years. (our application was made in Jan 2011) We opted for a 90 square meters apartment with 3 bedrooms.

On 10 June, we finalized our loans, made payments for the fire and house insurance, opened a utilities account and paid some bills, we became proud owners of a new apartment!


These are pictures of our apartment. We love the emerald view from all the windows, however, it will be a challenge to decorate this miniscule apartment and ensure that it meets our immense need for storage space.

Living room

Kitchen

Laundry room

View from living room

Living room

Corridor leading to bedrooms

Bedroom 1

Common toilet

Bedroom 2

Master bedroom toilet

Masterbedroom

Master bedroom

View from master bedroom

France 2014

It has been awhile since I last written! We spend 3 gorgeous weeks in France and Madrid in April. I'll write about the Madrid trip in a separate entry. Much time was spent with our family members, catching up and enjoying the spring weather. This was our 2nd trip to France, away from the hustle and bustle of city life, which I very much prefer. The sight of endless canola fields and smells from the lush forests were refreshing and captivating. 

To our delight, we were able to celebrate our nephew's 5th birthday this year! He had a pirate-themed party and my sister-in-law (sil) painstakingly planned every aspect of it for the children and the young-at-heart :D

Pirate crew bananas

Pirate hats for the guests (so creative!)

Eclair cake

Comte with tomatoes

The birthday cake

I could not be happier sharing the lives of my extended family. Visiting the kids' school, going through their weekly routine, visiting the playground they frequent, buying fresh produce from the local markets, preparing meals in the cosy kitchen, walking the dog, feeding ducks, have dinners and late night chats with family...these are sweet memories that I'll always cherish and remember. If I ever become a mom, I hope that I will be a hands-on mom like my sil.

Rambouillet

Baked apple tarte with my sil with the trusty Thermomix helper

The donkey and horse which my nephews fed spontaneously during a playground visit!

Forest walk

Oysters at a local market

Local market

The family's Vizsla :)

During our stay in the village, one of my favorite places to visit was the local bakery (boulangerie). The rustic smell of freshly baked bread, golden pastries and sweet delights was inviting and lovely. T was very fond of the macarons, which my mother-in-law (mil) raves about from time to time.

The wide and delicious array speaks for itself

Chocolate macaron

My favourites!!!!! Superb!

In Paris

Needless to say, we did spend 1-2 days in Paris to satisfy our innate shopaholics, with the excuse of buying souvenirs for friends and family. The experience was indeed unforgettable. Literally. While walking towards the metro at Opera, a group of gypsies attempted to pickpocket my husband. Thankfully the attempt was unsuccessful and we got away without losing anything. Back home that night, my sil told us that Asian tourists are frequent targets of petty crimes.

Galeries Lafayette

Roof top of Galeries Lafayette

Longchamp

Pierre Hermé

Pierre Hermé Easter specials

Pierre Hermé macarons (Passionfruit milk chocolate and rose)

Pierre Hermé macaron

Pierre Hermé

Versailles

With my sil's good planning, we managed to include a visit to Palace of Versailles in our itinerary! I was very excited about visiting the legendary Versailles because we did not get to go the last time and springtime is an added bonus for it! Nothing beats visiting historical places for a history buff like me. To get there, we took a RER train to Versailles-Rive Gauche station. From the station, it takes about 10 minutes to walk to the entrance of Versailles.

To beat the long ticketing queue, we purchased a ticket from the tourism office outside of Versailles. It is €2 more than the standard ticket, but I strongly recommend this if you are visiting during peak seasons. A one day pass (with audio guide) which entitles you to visit the palace, musical gardens and Marie-Antoinette's estate cost €27. The estate is massive! You could spend a full day in Versailles. (We arrived at 10am, left at 4pm) We toured the gardens first because of the long queue to the palace. (Even then, we took 1.5 hours to queue to get into the palace.) It is essential to wear a pair of good walking shoes. T packed sandwiches and snacks for the visit and I was very glad he did! Sitting on the park benches and taking in the view of the gardens was cheesy and romantic.

t

The ticket office where we purchased the tickets (beside Pullman hotel)

Château Chambord and Château de Chenonceau

Knowing my love for castles and all things medieval, my sil also planned a trip to 2 castles in Loire valley - Chambord and Chenonceau. I love both chateaus. The building style and history were immensely different and fascinating.

Château Chambord

Château Chambord

Château Chambord

Château Chambord

Château Chenonceau

Jardin de Giverny (Claude Monet's garden)

Back in school, one of the projects that I had to do, was to pick an artist and give a presentation about his/her works and painting style. I picked Claude Monet because I like his paintings and we share the same birth date! So imagine my delight when we visited Jardin de Giverny! Priceless! Monet created the magnificent gardens he wanted to paint... This guy is a visionary! Seeing his garden made me appreciate his paintings more than ever!

Honfleur, Normandy

We spent one weekend in Honfleur - a picturesque port town located in the North-West of France. You could read about its history here. The French founder of Quebec Canada, Samuel de Champlain was from Honfleur. This region is also famed for its local produce of seafood, cider and calvados. There is a particular recipe that celebrity chef, Rachel Khoo created which features cider and mussels from the region.

I had a fantastic time in France during this trip. We look forward to visiting again...hopefully in the near future.