cake, anyone?

How can anyone not fall in love with this rainbow cake, made famous (she was even invited to the Martha Stewart show for it!) by Kaitlin on her blog which is all about her baking adventure. Now, all I need is one good reason to do it! Anyone?

2010 in review

Another digital slideshow by Smilebox

While culling through our 2010 photos so I could do a back-up, many memories came flashing back while looking at the photos. So I thought it will be fun to do a recap of the year on a slideshow.

Putting it in words, 2010 will be remembered for these reasons (in no special order):

1. I started baking and I mean seriously baking. From desserts such as cakes, brownies, muffins, cupcakes, loaves.
2. CS finally took the plunge and went into his own business – starting his own driving school.
3. Missed out on the freak hailstorm which hit Perth ‘cos we were holidaying in Phuket.
4. We survived being away from each other for the longest time (2 months) when CS returned to SG to sell our flat.
5. Became Australian citizens in August.
6. Seeing breakthrough in the lives of the young adults in the connect group we lead in church.
7. Did camping for the very first time.
8. Experiencing off-road driving and sunset fishing during camping.
9. Having mum-in-law come lived with us – a huge adjustment considering that we’ve always lived on our own since our marriage.
10. Home improvement front – extended our driveway and had artificial lawn installed in our backyard.
11. The passing away of J.R – the neighbour’s cat which we kind of ‘adopted’ ‘cos he was spending so much time in our home.
12. All thanks to J.R, we started getting to know our neighbours really well. In fact, we now consider each other good friends and even hang out together!
13. CS turned forty – self-explanatory, really.
14. Being able to throw CS a proper birthday party with all our good friends around to celebrate with us.
15. Our long weekend break in Yallingup – beautiful beach house minutes to the ocean, cooking using fresh produce from the market, each other. Really, we can’t ask for more.
16. Growing in my new leadership role at work.
17. Experiencing God’s grace in our lives again and again.
18. The all-girls roadtrip was a blast but more importantly, it was a reassurance that some friendships can, indeed, stand the test of time.
19. Starting my own herb garden – thyme, parsley, basil, mint, coriander, rocket leaves, spring onions, chives. Makes me feel like Jaime Oliver whenever I go out to the backyard and pick my own herbs for cooking!
20. Started keeping a diary again ‘cos SF was sweet enough to send me a Starbucks one from Malaysia.
21. Ironically, even though there is no Starbucks in Perth, my collection of the Starbucks mugs had actually grown – Lebanon, Portland, Bali, Seattle, San Franscico, Seoul. All thanks to friends who remembered.
22. CS sold his prized Subaru Liberty GT post-Christmas cos he decided to ‘grow up’…all good except he’s now in the market looking for a 4-wheel drive to do off-road driving!
23. First time we cut short our roadtrip downsouth to Nannup ‘cos it was too hot!
24. All the summer stuff we got up to – beach time, snorkelling, outdoor movies, plays in the park, walk by the river etc.

tis the season…

Summer loving!

One of the best things about summer is having friends over and enjoying a meal over the the barbie. Yesterday, we had 2 couples who were foodies like us over for dinner. And here’s what we had:

For starter, Gillian/Ciaran made an Asian-style salad which was all crunchiness and refreshing to taste. And look at the colours!

As for us, we bought some gourmet sausages (think spinach-ricotta-chicken, hot-and-spicy, Moroccan lamb) from the butcher and also experimented with new recipes. The prawns were marinated with olive oil, lemon grass, garlic, chilli, salt and pepper.

Then our piece-de-resistance – field mushrooms with mascarpone and crumbled blue cheese topped with basil. It’s nothing to look at honestly but it was everyone’s favourite!

For dessert, Nico/Zoe brought a summer fruit salad served with raspberry coulis which was the perfect dessert given the heavy meal we had.

After that, it was some mucking around with the kids. Or rather, Kezia playing with CS. Right from the start since we knew Kezia, this little guy has always had a soft spot with  CS and would often initiate play with him. There is something magical about CS I must say, ‘cos I ended up marrying him!

And then the kids couldn’t wait to find their presents underneath the tree…and of course, they got what they wanted!

What wasn’t captured in the pictures was the after-dinner part. Gillian and Ciaran stayed on to play mahjong with us – something we had been doing with them. Last night, however, we learnt a new style of mahjong which was pretty competitive because of the scoring system! And I won 6 out of all 6 rounds! Now if only real money was at stake….

P/s: I still haven’t been able to capture a nice picture of our Christmas tree for this year. Am going to keep trying till I snapped a favourite so stay tuned…

invite’s out!

Come Saturday, we will be celebrating CS’ 40th at home! And you can be a part of it by leaving a comment with your birthday wishes and I will collate them in a special album for him before the day. Closing date for comments: this Fri 1700hr.

first aussie wedding

Weddings are always such a special occasion. Smiles and hugs are everywhere. And Love is almost tangible in the air. It is the beginning of a new chapter in life’s journey, only this time round, you do it together with someone. This month we attended our first Aussie wedding – Jaimee my gorgeous co-worker and Ryan the dashing professional footballer.

Since I was busy snapping shots of the couple most of the time, I didn’t manage to get any personal shot except when we had a break between the church and the evening reception so I quickly took a self-portrait from CS’ car. I’d worn a black ruffled silk dress and accessorized it with a white belt and vintage white Glomesh bag bought from a flea market weeks ago.

At the evening reception, however, there was a vintage photo booth for the guests to pop in anytime to take their photos. The best thing about that is you get to take home a photo strip and the wedding couple gets a duplicate as a keepsake as well. Here’s what we got up to in the photo booth:

I love weddings!

remembering Good Friday

We attended Good Friday service in church yesterday where a sister S shared her personal story of how God transformed her wild days of alcohol, drugs and sex to who she is today – a loving wife and mother of a two-year old boy. I had talked to S briefly in church before but hadn’t known this about her past. I was moved to tears because I was reminded of Jesus saying that ‘I’ve come to seek and save the lost..and it is the sick who needs the doctor and not the healthy…’ (paraphrase mine).

After service, over hot cross buns (a Easter tradition here; best eaten toasted and slathered with butter – yum!) and drinks, we caught up with 3 relatively newcomers/believers. One of them, in fact, had just responded to the altar call to receive Christ into his life.

When asked what made him come to church, he replied ‘to have a new start’. Turned out this young man of twenty-two had moved over to Perth with his family from the Eastern state 6 weeks ago. He shared that he too had a story like S. Again, I found myself overwhelmed at what I was hearing and seeing before me – a punk-looking young man with tattoos over his arms now acknowledging his need for God. What an awesome Good Friday! What about you; what is your story this Good Friday?

After church, we hopped over to visit a good friend and her two boys.

And I finally took a self-portrait with two of my favourite things in the house – the mirror and the Eiffel tower poster (a tribute to N’s French heritage)

At night, we went over to Bel and Ivan’s place to work out. Yes, that meant burning calories by playing on the Wii! Here was CS trying to flap his wings as a bird in one of the games – hilarious!

hitched!

We hosted a little engagement party for Jaimee in the office this morning. She had been away on a two weeks’ holiday in Vietnam and her boyfriend pulled a surprise by proposing to her during the trip. She was so excited that she smsed me: “Sorry i could not tell you in person but last night ryan asked me to marry him and i said yes! miss you all.”

Mish (read her version of the story here) and I then decided to throw Jaimee a little party when she returned to work. And we started by decorating her desk with balloons and banners:

Then Mich and Cate baked her this awesome chocolate trifle cake:

And I, of course, was the designated card-maker:

Congratulations, Jambo Rainbow!

surprise baby shower…

Last Saturday, on the pretext of a housewarming get-together, I threw my boss Dave and his wife who are expecting their first baby a surprise baby shower. It also worked out well that they were going to be the last guests to arrive because he had to attend their godson’s first hockey match…

And then the unsuspecting couple arrives; I loved the look on Fliss when she first walked in; too bad the shot was blurry!

And then there was the food that everyone brought:

Then it was time to ‘shower’ the couple with gifts:

The gift that says it all, from yours truly!

And then everyone had a go at guessing ‘how big she really is’:

The next game was for the ‘parents-to-be’ only- identifying ingredients in bottles of baby food:

ssshhh…