Complicatedly Simple

Why sometimes I gotta cook such a wide variety of dishes for the same dinner?

Hubby is not loving the beef, not if he could help it. So I have to bake chicken.
Oooo…. green vege is not in his wishlist too, so I gotta pick-out only the potatoes and the onion for him.

The kid is not ready for marinated spicy meat yet. Plus, we want him to have something more nutritious. So I bake the Salmon.
He is not choosy on his green, so I give him a 'lil of everything

Yours truly fancy red meat when sipping the Port. So I bake the beef. Am not choosy on my greens too, so I take whatever that is leftover.

Having meat and greens only will be too bland, so I cook mushroom soup…. Homemade and not from the can.

So yup. It is as simple as that.

Inspired

Samuel likes to line up his coins like this.

When he lines up the cutesy colored Mahjong mock coins, he’ll declared them to be caterpillars.

So, can you guess where I get my inspiration from?

I find it kinda hard to fold the rounded edge with normal fabric. Inspired by a gal who is into Felt craft recently, it dawn to me that I can use Felt for the embellishment too.

I tried sewing the eyes but they turned out butt ugly. Hubby suggested the buttons : )
Yup, he is behind me with this new hobby of mine. Totally supportive!

Mommy, I want the caterpillar.
Mommy can give the Apple Bag away

:O

Dinner in Paradise

I did not cook tonight as we planned to eat out. But then, it had been a long day at work and I wasn’t feeling too hot. Err…. actually I am feeling hot, I’ve been down with sore throat and stuff for the past two weeks. Suffering and hot!

So we changed our plan and wanted to grab something fast from our cafe downstairs instead. I know I have been mentioning this cafe for a few times already but I’m still not tired of it yet.

The food is not really something to shout about and it is really a kopitiam type of place, but we love it to bits. Very convenient. Especially tonight because as soon as we put our butt down, it started to pour cats and dogs.
It dread us to think how we were to manage if we are caught outside in midst of the heavy rain. Or that we will need to scrub and scour the kitchen that time of the evening.

It is raining outside

Instead we had a nice dinner in paradise with a little Angel having a blast running around the cafe….

And screaming his lungs out when there was a sudden loud thunder : )

Daddy, protect me!

Puffy Sleeves Tweed Jacket

Yes, Malaysia is hot (heh!) and jackets do not well parade down the street.
But that does not necessary means ‘ya can’t parade it around the cool (heh again!) office *wink.

Like everybody else…. ok may be not,
I commit the ultimate fashion crime all the time; the dreaded office windbreaker.

You gotta love the full blast cool air-cond to appreciate the windbreaker. And I’m loving it I tell ‘ya.
Sometimes comfort has to come before vanity.

Sometimes, vanity walks first.

And sometimes, you can have the cake and eat it : )

I found this puffy sleeves tweed jacket during the last mega sale, the time of the year where I always try to do my shopping to save on retail. But ironically, the jacket itself is not on sale.
: O
I got it anyway.

A backside pose for a change.

Costume

I did not stop at the head piece.

Not that I’m carried away with the sewing, but I think I’m ready to go one step further from only sewing bags.
(Oh, I have had quite a few adventurous practices and have had a few failed projects on my belt. But I’ll save them for another story another day.)

I received an updated schedule from Samuel’s school on his year-end school activities last week and quite a few of them are interesting.
One of it is the theme potluck party that will be held very soon.

I know that I’m short of time but I still gave it a try; to make Samuel a costume for the occasion. I hastily sourced for the material earlier in the week and this is what I came up with.

What ‘da ya think?
Costume-y enough?

I use the Oxford cloth for it. I think the basket weave fit the theme.

Leart from my earlier peejays making experience where threads are giving their ways after a few wash, I took less short cut this time and paid more attention to the joints finishing.

I use the wooden button for a more native look.

The fringes are created by cut Felt.

I strengthen ‘em by sewing ‘em through but don’t think they’ll last long.

Contrast lines and lace complete the embellishment for the costume.

And oh, btw, I still have no idea on how to take measurement and direction-less on the cutting. The fabric was cut using the paper mock Mom made earlier for Samuel’s peejays : )

Stop to Think

I notice I didn’t mention much about my work recently..

Actually, I rarely write about work. I love it as it is and I understand the nature of the corporate world. It’s not always a bed of roses all the time.
Sometimes we lose, sometimes we gain.
Sometimes we’ll be up there and sometimes we’ll be at lower ground.
I accept everything that comes with it though at times not without qualms.

I started to think again recently after the big change beginning of this year. I think I’ll be at another juncture soon and perhaps ripe for another change again.

Perhaps it’s premature to think about it now,

But…. it is always good to plan early?

Perhaps I should just wait and see where this road will bring me

Perhaps I should just build another road for myself

Or perhaps I should stop.

How?

Native

Care to guess what is this?

How about this?

I think I need bigger feathers

Maxi and Mini

Ok…… That does not sound quite right.

What I’m referring to is actually this.

The maxi and the mini version of yet another variation of the Oriental Bag.

I made a mini version with the jacquard fabric too but forget to snap a photo before gift-ing it away :D
Mom personally hand picked the fabric, she absolutely loves it!

The cream-colored bag is also a gift for a gal for her special day. She is also loving it.

And I’m loving it when they are loving it :D

Here're some close-up shots

The very neat side.
An improvement of my earlier work.

The button is used as top finishing this time.
Serves as a good accessory too.

The mini version is really only good for small item such as wallet, phone, make-up pouch and stuff.

I ran out of cream fabric, thus immature side seam closure.

3 Cups Chicken

We first tried the San Bei Ji last week at a Restaurant serving Taiwanese cuisine. Taste wise, it was OK but not too distinguish from other chicken dish we’ve tried before.
What drawn to me to it was how easy the recipe could be and why is it so famous among the Taiwanese.

I surfed the net for a simple recipe and followed it almost to a tee. I did not use the proportion of 1:1:1 for the 3 main ingredients; white rice wine, soy sauce and sesame oil (naturally, I cut on the oil portion of course) but I put in all the basic ingredients as stated; ginger, spring onion, garlic, sugar.

Somehow, the taste came out different from what we remember.

Now we’ve never tried it from an authentic Taiwanese restaurant before it is so hard to do any comparison.
Could it be the version we tried last week was a modified one?
Or is it simply because my cooking is lousy and the chicken came out no where near to 3-cups chicken?

I choose to believe the former!

Apple Bag

Mommy, why apple?

‘Cos Mommy has not learnt how to make dinosaur yet.

Then I want pineapple..
I want lemon…
I want orange….
I want banana…..

That explains why the apple and not more complicated motive. I have some ideas in my head now but have yet to source for the material and the drawing. May be next round : )

I heard Samuel’s cousin downsouth adores the lil messenger bag earlier. It is convenient to lug his toys and essentials : )

That prompted me to make one for Samuel as well. Then, he can lug his own toys rather than chuck everything into my bag when we are out and about!

Though I doubt Samuel will make use of the lil pockets inside, I still put ‘em in just in case.

Model of the day : )