January Empties

 

Project 100 pan was easy at the start. Seek out the forgotten bottles of products that I didn't have the discipline to see through.

These all happened to be moisturizers this time around.

1) A souvenir from my dear friend's visit to LA: Love Spell from Victoria Secret, a fragrance of Cherry blossom, peach and white jasmine. All individual scents that I love but together, it is a sickly sweet floral scent that had hints of fruit and Mr. HEA didn't like it. Given the scent lingers until washed off, this moisturizer got put aside once I moved in with Mr HEA. And would I buy it again? Probably not given that the moisturizing effect doesn't last and a few hours after its been absorbed, skin feels thirsty again.

2) Body shop's Passion fruit body butter was part of a KK present l got two years ago. whilst the scent is nicer than Love spell, but not actually as long lasting, this body butter was nothing like the other ranges of body butter i had tried from Body shop. Passionfruit was sticky and unpleasant to feel after application. it doesn't absorb well into the skin. I don't miss it at all.

3) Another Christmas gift 2 years ago from work: this tube of Crabtree & Evelyn's Rosewater hand cream is lovely. Pleasant rose scent, moisturizing propensities (just the right amount of oiliness for the hands), this travel sized tube travelled Europe with me this last trip and it was a boon for the long haul flights. Another big tick for Crabtree and Evelyn handcreams.

Am not sure how many products I am going to get through for February. My discipline wanes. Plus I am traveling to Malaysia next week and gosh how do I avoid the temptation of cheap cosmetics and products. It's become such a habit for me! Hang in there with me and I shall report back on this in a Month's time.

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More shopping my closet

When faced with tough decisions on what to wear without exhausting the bank account (still dented from the Europe trip and buying gifts for family for Chinese New Year), especially for packing to take with to Malaysia for my upcoming festive visit, it was a tough call. Mother will crack down hard with her code of approval for what is decent or not, and it is not skewed towards being trendy I can tell you that much. First there`s the trying on of outfits:

Maxi skirts for day and for night

One statement necklace three ways: fun, work and play Then when it got too muggy to keep pulling clothes out of the wadrobe, I decided to get creative with a notepad and colour pencils to mentally pull together pieces from my wadrobe to pack for the trip. I think I have some winning combinations. Can't wait to wear it for real when I get back.

Wedding at Centennial Vineyards Bowral

I went to a dream wedding yesterday. Full of love, personality and fun. Catching the groom prior to the wedding to ask if I could help in anyway, he said everything was under control, and I knew it would be. After all they had excellent support from the warm venue staff who coordinated all the event run sheet professionally and seamlessly.

It was a really warm humid day and evening where everything around Sydney seemed to be going wrong what with all the traffic incidents and fires making the drive down to Bowral slow to a crawl, but the place itself was protected from the worries of the world. Here, we laughed, we teared up, we embraced the young couple and lived that very moment with them.

The beautiful mingling area

Our wonderful menu for the night

My entree: Rotolo of Pumpkin

 

My dessert: Banana & Cinnamon cake

Wedding Cake

The Bride and Groom speech

I am pleased to say I had other causes to celebrate the night. I was able to sell my wedding dress finally and it fit the new owner perfectly which was a relief seeing her wedding was only two weeks away. Also, my makeup lasted me the whole humid day without melting.An amazing feat to be sure!

 It was my Burberry look complete with soft Smokey eyes glistened up with Chanel illusion D'Ombre Long wear luminous eyeshadow, Falsies applied with Shu Umera eyelash glue, Burberry Lip Velvet lipstick in Antique Pink all held together sitting atop my ever trustworthy Chanel Eclat Vitalumiere pressed powder that held everything in place the whole day. I think the trick is in good layering. A good moisturised face as a base, layered with BB cream and liquid foundation, then slowly building up layers of colour with the eye shadow and lip liner, pressing firmly on application with quick patting strokes. No reapplication other than lipstick was necessary throughout the entire day.

What a lovely way to welcome in the long weekend. I am very pleased for the couple and have been able to achieve a few personal fist pumps for myself along the way. Happy Australia Day folks!

Planning my best friend's thirtieth

No amazing feat as I had the help of several close friends to her and the birthday girl supplied a list herself of the 72 guests she wanted to spend the day with.

What's a birthday without balloons?

We decorated the Beresford Hotel at Surry Hills but the venue was so lovely that we didn't really need to add many touches. The organising was an ease as the staff were very professional and we were given an awesome host on the day that made sure the food came out on time and was evenly staggered throughout the day so that everyone had a nibble and no one got too drunk, drinking on an empty stomach.

We would have loved a party in their exotic beer garden, but we really couldn't have fit everyone in. and given the extreme heat and the cool rain that's threatened us since, we didn't really feel like taking a risk by booking the outdoors venue. This corner was ideal for a enclosed feel with the greenery in the dividers providing an outdoor illusion.

  The comfy couches and seating made it really relaxing easy for high heel wearers to rest their soles throughout the party too.

My OOTD: H&M Peplum Jacket, Supre Singlet, Zeitgeist pants, Vincci Sandals and Louis Vuitton Clutch. The Birthday present I gave the lucky girl, was unfortunately not LV, but something else from Paris that she clutched with glee when she opened it.

Did I intentionally match the Birthday cake with my outfit? Orange and Carrot cake was a big hit at the party.

Turns out you can still get the girl who has everything several creative things for her birthday. Every single present she was pleased with and excitedly tore the wrapping off for. Can you spot my gift? A limited edition Longchamp in blue, her covetted colour of the moment.

Happy Birthday my favourite girlfriend! I know it's been tough getting here, but I still can't beleive we have made it this far. I know you enjoyed the day and I am glad. On today, I wish you all the awesomeness Bali has to offer. Including your very own Katut, I hope. *wink*

I Wantz Cocktail Ring

I Wantz Cocktail Ring by happy-e-after featuring swarovski crystal jewelry

DANNIJO / Kenneth Jay Lane cushion diamond ring / Kenneth Jay Lane swarovski crystal jewelry / Michael Kors emerald cocktail ring / Givenchy / Fantasy Jewelry Box cushion diamond ring / Forever New stone ring, $18 / Miso cocktail ring, $3.18

Pop up El Loco at Opera House

Where else does Sydney flock to in the warm months if not to the water?




Thankfully for us, that is in abundance in our city (water and sunshine that is). And this year, a bit of fiesta hit our shores in the guise of Merivale`s popup Mexican bar and eatery by the boardwalk with a view of the delightful opera house.

Hip music, hot crowd, cold beers and magaritas, Mexican finger food, what else is needed for a lovely summer night out after work?

A bucket of Coronas sets you back AUD 30, a taco is Aud 6 and you may choose from tofu, prawn, chorizo and egg as well as their chipolte with secret sauce. There are nachos an salads and hot dogs with cheese sauce all freshly assembled upon order. Queues are long but service is quick.

Chefs Gallery on Bathurst Street

We hadn't been too eager to join the hoards when this place first opened. Ahhh another hyped up restaurant opening. Being from South east Asia we thought the food couldn't be anything enticing for our palate for authenticity.

But after almost a year of its opening, when the queues never shortened, we caved and decided to find out what the fuss was all about.

This is what we found: Delicious sliders-style pork buns, with fried bread, crisped pork fillets and a sweet Asian style mayo;

bouncy handmade tantan noodles with the most savory spicy pork broth; jeweled fried rice which glistens, taste fresh and doesn't clump ( the ultimate test of rice frying technique); silky spinach tofu that's delicately fried; gorgeous dumplings that yields in your mouth not on your chopsticks; Savory roti presented with a variety of fillings

and for the young at heart, cute twists in the Asian desserts that look way better than its taste, but presented well for food porn.

 

The verdict is, the food is a good blend of SEA flavours and was a rather good treat, a tad different from the normal Asian eateries. We did enjoy ourselves and if the wait wasn't long, I`d be back again, but somehow, I don't expect the crowds to dissipate soon.

Cray Cray for Love



Excerpts from Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, highlighting the points where she is slowly going cray cray because at that point, Love is just no longer enough:

Before Vronsky' s departure for the election, Anna, coming to the conclusion that the scenes which had always taken place every time he left her for a journey might serve to cool his love rather than attach him more firmly to her, resolved to control herself to the best of her ability, so as to endure calmly the separation from him. But the cold, stern look which he had given her when he came to tell her about his journey had wounded her, and he was hardly out of her sight before her resolution was shaken.

In her solitude, as she began to think over his cold look, which seemed to hint at a desire for liberty, she came back, as she always did, to one thing — to the consciousness of her humiliation.

" He has the right to go when and where he pleases. Not only to go, but to abandon me. He has all the rights, and I have none ! But as he knows this, he ought not to have done this. And yet what has he done ? .... He looked at me with a hard, stern look. Of course, that is vague, intangible. Still, he did not formerly look at me so, and it signifies much," she thought;

"that look proves that he is growing cold toward me."

" It is all the same to me," thought Anna, "if only he is here ; and when he is here he cannot help loving me ; he does not dare not to love me."

***

" That is not the cause," said she ; " and I do not understand how my irritability, as you call it, can be caused by the fact that I have come absolutely into your power. How is my position indefinite .'' It seems to me the contrary." 

" I am sorry that you are not willing to understand," he replied, obstinately determined to express his thought. " Its uncertainty comes from this, — that you think that I am free." 

Watching the film on the plane back from London sparked off a niggling thought in me. What if going over to London makes me entirely dependent on Mr.HEA and that slowly drives him insane before driving me off the cliff too?

I didn't use to like Anna when I read the story as a younger woman, but perhaps it was because I feared that insanity that is so inane in females. The one that scares the alpha males away, the one that does not bode well with the Grace and elegance I am aspiring to (wishful thinking).

But now, faced with the tough decisions, its difficult to keep her leashed.

Well, I am not about to give up, but as with all big tasks/goals, the easiest way to achieve them is to take them in bite-sized chunks, so I am doing just that for now. Making my plans one step at a time.

Project 100 Pan

The plan is simple:

Look at my makeup trolley. Doesn't this look like the very reason why Project 100 Pan was created? Given the pending moving plans in the end of 2013, the aim for now is to declutter and to save for all the upcoming changes in my life. Hopefully I achieve the goal before June.

The rules are not different from why those who have embarked upon this journey might also have chosen:

1) No new purchases unless there is no replacement for the empties either via samples or substitute products (I.e. soap for body shampoo, leave in conditioner for conditioner)

2) For every unnecessary purchases an equal number is added onto the goal list.

3) 3 Samples count towards one product.

4) For every product finished, £2 is added to the budget of buying something nice for me in my summer trip to Europe ( now is that incentive or what?)

I will also be decluttering via eBay, gumtree and whichever other means available to me so those coffers received will also contribute to my little travel splurge kitty.

Now to stick to the plan so that I may have something decent to show for it all! Let the game begin!

Shops in London

Sigh I miss being a lady of leisure, waking up every morning just to slap on lipstick and a cute outfit ( I lie. It didn't really matter what I wore, I never took off my coat anyways it was so cold... but for the purposes of whetting your imaginations...), and then the slam of a door and I was out in the cold crisp London air, headed out to catch one of those red double decker bus.

Most days I wonder if my fellow bus passengers wondered who I was as I commuted with my head in the clouds, wondering what I would see that day, and how nice it was to be semi-local, living in a house instead of a hotel in a foreign city and yet so uncertain about the life around me.

Before all the holiday goodness wears off and 'Business as usual' takes over completely my post-holiday glow, I wanted to do one more photographic holiday post on the shopping in London:

To Scuol to ski

Tarasp Castle

Church in Tarasp

Typical xmas decor in Scuol-Tarasp

In the neck of the woods. Ain't this quite like a Twilight saga scene?

Making snow angels

Furry snow

The best butcher in the region

Winter Wanderveg #1

Winter Wanderveg #2

Something tranquil about being in Scuol-Tarasp. a small region, a lesser well known place perhaps to the other Ski fields in Switzerland. But as I listened to the locals greet each other cheerfully and their proud accounts of the wonderful activities the town gets up to, how each family probably has about three different sources of income (ski-related, farming, hunting, hospitality etc) I am glad to have been here rather than ritzy St.Moritz.

A place where shops don't open on Sundays, where everyone engages in outdoor activities whenever the sun is out (sledding, Nordic skiing, Winter walks, spa baths, snow-shoveling, ice-skating), where the people know exactly where they are by looking at the mountains and what time it is by the position of the sun and the chiming of the town bells and where the houses have been around from the 16th century, passed down from generation to generation.

Take a deep breath of the crisp, cold air, one might think its the altitude to blame for being short of breath, but look carefully once more, the scenery does take one's breath away.