Exhausted

All the running and puffing is taking its toll on me.

I was knocked but not down, by a bike in front of the hospital last week.

I almost nearly (not almost nor nearly) knocked onto another car when I drove the other day.

I stepped on my own foot and almost fell flat on my face when I walked to the office today.

I Went to a Business Seminar

A white cropped jacket

over a tube LBD

with hair sleeked to the back

Sorta Creamcheese Cookies and Sorta Shortbread Cookies

It’s another last minutes bake, so last minute that I did not check through if I have enough of everything needed at home.

Half way through the dough mixing, I realized that I was short of flour. One cup short!
So, what I had then was more of a batter instead of dough.
I baked them anyway.
And I put them in paper cup to hold ‘em together

It rose nicely and smelled heavenly. Tasted butter and creamcheese rich.
But the texture was too soft for a cookie yet to dry for a cake. It sorta shattered like glass when you set your teeth on ‘em. Samuel loved them though, the crumbs did not bother him as much as they bothered me :p

I tried to bake the cookies again a few days later but ran out of creamcheese. I had ample of flour this time. So, the cookies turned out looking like shortbread cookies but taste-wise quite bleh.

Sigh…

May be I don’t have the cookies hands after all.

Be Our Light

That Sabbath morning, I sat there
Beautiful hymns filled up the air
I felt the gush, I welled up
What we can do, only so much?

Lives, they are so innocent
Lives, ye want to love
Lives, they are so precious
Life is how we live ours

Let there be light
Shine through ye path
Let ye be free
Well, peace and happy

A Hat and a Bag

I’m flattered. SIL said she could see me in it. She got it for me

The Straw Garden Hat

I love it. I somewhat could see myself in it too.
The beige is very soft, the pink is as soft. The flowery ribbon adds extra pinch of girly feel.

The problem is, I don't have occasion to flaunt it.
Ain’t no accessories to match it too.

How eh?

Sew myself a beige brown Hobo Bag to go with it of course!

It’s getting easier, I know how to cut the fabrics and all the stitches by heart now having sewed 2 of the same kind before.

This is the strap joint close-up.

And these are what I lug along with me all the time sans Samuel’s water tumbler. Ain’t big enough to fit it in.
If you see closely, there’re 2 small inner pockets on each side for my loose items; phone, keys and stuff.

And this is the whole look …… taken indoor :p

Perhaps, we could plan for a picnic soon.

Stir Fried Zucchini

My normal preparation is minestrone soup or stews with mince meat for Samuel. Today I tried the stir fried.

None of the few recipes I surf from the net looks appetizing, so I mix and match some of the ingredient I have here at home and stir fried it Chinese style.

I diced all except for the Eryngii mushroom which I sliced them in thin pieces. And oh, the garlic and ginger were finely chopped of course.

Zucchini, carrot, dried shitake Mushroom, Eryngii Mushroom, big onions, chicken
Colorful ain’t it?

It turns out that only Samuel and I fancy the Zucchini.
Hmm... that will not stop me from cooking it again though.

And here’s a shot of Tuesday Cheesecake after it’s chilled for a few hours.

Awesome!

Baked Cheesecake and Stitch and Sew

I’ve been meaning to do a live blogging on my cheesecake baking debut just now but as usual, pictures taking slipped off my mind again.

So I don’t have a before or in-midst photo to share.

This is the cheesecake fresh from the oven a few minutes ago.

I still gotta chill it in the fridge for at least 5 hours before it can be served.

The making of this cake (ya, watch too much Hollywood “The Making of….." already :p) was not without any bumps.
I’m not too sure why that I had this urge to bake the cake since this morning. I was busy the whole day and could only find the time to get around it at after 10 just now after watching one of my usual soap.
Just as I was about to get all my ka-chang out, I realized that I ran out of eggs. I had two choices then; defer my plan or drive out to a 24hours store.
I chose the later and lugged my lazy bum out.
As luck would turn out, the cafe downstairs was still opened and spared me 2 eggs.

:O
That’s the sign.
Yup, I had to bake the cake by hook or by crook :p.

Hence the baked cheesecake.
The ingredient I used:
Cream cheese
Sugar
Eggs
A pinch of salt
A spoonful too much vanilla essence
A bit too much milk
Butter
Crackers

Lets see how the cake turns out tomorrow.

On another note, I sewed another hobo bag last week.

Looks better this time I think.

I find this style quite versatile and can be used for almost any occasion saved for formal dinner.

I’m on a quest to sew another half a dozen more. So may be I’ll post them up altogether then. May take me forever though.

Thoughtful Gesture

Heh. It’s hard to hate visiting hospitals nowadays.
Although the long waiting hours are still there, the hospitals' hospitality is at par with those of five-stars hotels.

: O

While we were waiting at the hospital the other day for sis’s follow-up appointment, we were served warm tea by a sweet looking soft spoken no-less trainee nurse.
She went around the hospital premise with trolley, tray, tea, serviette and all

and offered them to visitors.
It beat our agitation there and then.

And today as I was getting frustrated from circling endlessly around the hospital compound looking for a parking space to pick up my sis from her physiotherapy session, the hospital served sis this.

How thoughtful!

It supressed my rage almost like a magic.

Stitch and Sew: Hobo Bag

It has been a month since I last sew. June had been a busy month for me.
Just as I was about to start on another sewing project, something came up and I gotta delay my thoughts.

Well, while waiting for my plan to get back in course, I busied myself with something I’m more familiar with. Bags.

I tried smaller size bag this time. Hobo style with minimal pattern.

The outlook looks quite OK at a glance.

But on second look, flaws surface one by one.

The inner pockets are proportioned incorrectly,

One part of the zip is sewed too close to the teeth,

The material is a tad too soft and the color is not catchy enough.

This is how it looks hanging up.

Usable nevertheless.

Head to Toe Matching

I am quite sure that you’ll cringe just by thinking about it…

Let alone trying out the look….

Especially when it’s the bright colors we are talking about ……

Worse still for an office do!

:O

Well, yesterday I felt like committing this fashion crime...Felt it. Done it!

Not floral-ed or patterned. Just plain bright baby blue with pinches of pink. (I could almost hear you gasp :p )

A mono-colored shirt

And a tiered knee length skirt

With a salmon pink open-toe ribbon pumps

(You can stop shaking your head now cos..)
I’ll be kind and save you the horror sight.
Here’s a fraction of the blue. I complete my look with dangling pink earrings and pink lipstick : )

And oh ya, I did not forget to lug my almost pink shoulder tote too.

I Like Him

I meant to post this this morning at 2 something but somehow couldn’t connect to Blogspot.
Yes, I was up. I was watching the Michael Jackson Memorial Service screening live on 8TV.

I’d been lost for words for the past days. It was only this morning that I felt right to write about it.
I cried.

I admire him as an artist despite whatever said.

Yes, I like him.

The Wills That Move the Wheels

Not too sure if I have mentioned it here before but I love driving. More specifically self-drive!
Not only because of my motion sickness problem where I ought to steer the car to control my own motion but because I just simply love to drive.

The feeling of cruising hundreds of miles over breath-taking sceneries…

the feeling of being completely frees owning your moments…

the excitement of anticipating what’s lay ahead of ‘ya….

I love ‘em all!

My first car was an 850cc Kancil. I got it as it was a car that I could afford then. It’s relatively quite an easy to carry car; easy to park, easy to maneuver, easy on my pockets : )
It was a manual-geared car.
That was when I fell in love with driving. I like to be in control of my speed. Though it is achievable via auto-geared car too, somehow playing with the manual gear gave me a tingeing sensation that I couldn’t explain.

I was young then, I drove my car over 200 km back to my hometown alone within the month I got her. I did not shed a sweat!

I drove her back on another occasion alone again at wee hours in the night; way past midnight after I’d attended a cocktail party and I did not think that it was a big deal.
I thought I had too as I was rushing home for the QingMing the morning after.

Ya… I was that daring then.
And ya, I was that in-love with driving.
But make no mistakes; it’s driving, not racing. :p

Things have change now. If I’m placed in a situation where I was to go on a long drive, I would find myself thinking twice.
Is it needed to or is it because I want to?
Yes, I love driving, but I ain’t 18-22 anymore.
Can I withstand the long exhausting drive?
Am I fit to?
And most importantly I have other passengers to think off too.

I find myself slowing down. I would rather break my journey into a few shorter drives with rest in-between.
I would rather have another back-up driver traveling with me just in case.
I would rather not travel in the middle of the night to the middle of nowhere.

But I still love that tingeing sensation of in-control of my own speed. I did not get myself the auto-geared car after my faithful Kancil era. The new (then, old now) car I got myself is still another small manual car.
And I still love her to bits!

Till The Cows Come Home

…. and come home they did......

My sanity knocked me back to reality in the nick of time to save our neighbors’ eardrums from having permanent damage due to extremely-loud-cum-high-pitched-shrieks exposure.

As I was reversing to park my car back at our small town home, I ran over these;

It wasn’t only me, Mom was as puzzled too.
Why would there be any dung that’s so humongous looking yet so artistically scattered across our green?

Upon closer look, they were not dung but gigantic cute wilted fungus.

Poor house, waited for us to come back until grew mold liao :p