Life Love and Me » Festivities

Valentine’s Topiary for Chinese New Year

celine — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:23:00 +0000

I have never been one good with traditions, frankly I suck at them. Since young I never saw the significance of Chinese New Year. To me it was (and is still is) merely another flipping of the calendar day. I only enjoyed the extended days of holidays that came with it. Before marriage it would mean holidays overseas with friends, but after marriage everything changed. I needed to be a responsible daughter-in-law and mother ……. certain chinese new year must-dos needed to be done even though I do not believe in them.

During Chinese New Year it is customary to prepare “goodie bags” for family and friends. I enjoy putting together personalised gifts each year. I find store bought hampers expensive and boring! This year I made Valentine’s Topiary filled with traditional CNY cookies and nuts.

I spent a week cutting circles from 5 yards of velvet plus many, many hours assembling them. It was fun but my biceps were aching by the time I completed all nine of them. This was the most time consuming part. The rest was quite a breeze.

I painted and decorated metal pots from Ikea, planted the topiary with a thin layer of cement, filled it up with the cookies and nuts, then covered it with dried moss.

My girls had a lot of fun in the entire “planting” process. They would work through their homework (from school) in record breaking speed so that they could help out. We had some awesome time bonding ……

I included this tea set as part of the gift too. I fell in love with it the minute I saw it at the mall. It is SO PRETTY. I hope my friends feel the same too. *keeping my fingers crossed*.

A New Decade – 2010

celine — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:41:55 +0000

I used to have a love-hate relationship with January 1st. I love that it signifies a new beginning, new dreams, new hopes but at the same I hate it due to all my un-met resolutions! Two years ago, I finally grew-up (i.e. matured) and stopped making a big deal out of the New Year, and stopped making a long list of not likely to meet resolutions. January 1st became another flipping of the calendar day. I reasoned that I can do up a to-do-list aka resolutions anytime of the year. The biggest challenge is to stay focused and get it done.

So how was past two years since I stopped making resolutions? Were they more fruitful than the ones with resolutions? Not sure but I was definitely a happier and more relaxed person without my list of to-dos. In 2008 (the first year without resolutions) I learnt how to bake cakes and bread. I started off with recipe books and very soon realised that food bloggers are a much better source. I surprised myself by not just liking it but enjoying myself so much that I do it every other day. Being someone who prefers the outdoors and likes to be on the go all the time, my indoors hobbies used to be short-lived, but baking survived till today. My mum asked me yesterday, “You are still baking? You have not got tired of it yet?”. Due to this (my baking hobby) I stayed home more and started to appreciate my life as a homemaker.

Last year I miraculously decided to cook dinner on weekdays for my family. My hubby was shocked because no cooking was my condition when he proposed. He was worried (knowing how much I hate cooking) that I was either having a severe depression, or an early mid-life crisis. I am still at the maximum four-ingredients recipes, still complaining two hours before dinner time, still looking for ways to make my already easy recipes easier but I am still putting homecooked meals on the dinner table on most weekday nights. And for that, I am so proud of myself. Those who know me personally would be proud of me too.

Not sure whether it is pure coincidence but my life changed dramatically the minute I stopped making new year resolutions. Just for the records, learn-to-bake was part of my resolutions for years. Once again I did not make any resolutions for 2010. I will continue to embrace each day with an open mind and try to live it to the fullest. Vanessa of V and Co, wrote a beautiful post on the coming decade and how she chose consistency as her word of the year. To me it was a very well written post and I like it a lot, actually so much that I decided to adopt a similar approach for the coming decade. I would like to be consistent in loving my family, to be consistent in looking after my family’s needs, to be consistent in preparing dinner on weekdays, to be consistent in my parenting approach, to be consistent in my exercise routine, to be consistent in my calorie intake, et cetera.

Happy (belated, again) New Year, and hope that it will be a super-amazing one for all of us!

Responsible Decisions

celine — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:14:43 +0000

Hubby and I made a painful decision last November. We cancelled our planned 6 months in advance, eagerly awaited year-end holidays abroad. It was painful, difficult, awful but we did it. At times I wish that we are less responsible, I wish that we love our daughters a little less, I wish that we are more selfish , I wish, I wish, I wish …..

My elder girl’s teachers felt that she has the ability to secure a government scholarship to study abroad. As the exams are going to take place in September next year, we were advised to prepare early (huh?) and send her for extra coaching during the year-end break. Being the non-typical Asian parents (Asian parents tend to be very obsessed over kids education) we laughed it off. We were shocked when my girl told us that she wanted to have a go at the scholarship thingy. We tried to talk her out of it as hubs and I prefer our girls to have a more balanced school versus all-other-fun-stuff. She convinced us to support her decision ….

We ended up cancelling our holiday plans – hubs went back to work and I was busy sending her to and from tuition classes. While she was busy with homework, my younger girl and I prepared Christmas gifts for our friends. We made Christmas trees out of our friends favourite chocolates and sweets. We even made one in Japanese wasabi beans and sugarless sweets for a special old lady. I was inspired by Angie of Treasure For Tots. She has a tutorial on it.

This is what I made for my girls. After doing 11 trees, I was too lazy to paint/decorate the pot. They were not the least bothered, more interested in the goodies (all their favourites).

I was not in the mood to do any Christmas baking or any other baking for that matter. My oven was not warmed-up for over a month. I was busy feeling sorry for myself (over my cancelled holidays) when my kids were not looking. I know, I know, I am a spoilt and immature mummy.

Here’s a song (my favourite) from me to you. I hope that your Christmas was filled with lots of Joy, Peace & Happiness!

Fluke-Shot?

celine — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:14:00 +0000

Both my girls started to like eating mooncakes after our experience with Fook Pan last year. So I thought that it would be a good idea to try making them myself so that I could adjust the taste according to our liking. I was all prepared to give mooncake-making a go but hubs thought otherwise. He felt that I am being overly ambitious and is grossly under-estimating the complexity of mooncake-making. Anyway I went ahead and bought the required ingredients. I started by making a couple of small baked moonies and surprisingly they were almost perfect (in my opinion) – nice imprint, evenly browned in the tone that I like and no cracks. I was giggling, jumping up and down, dancing around the house, calling all my friends, telling my neighbours ………

Two variations of small baked moonies – red bean paste and ribena lotus paste.

I received alot of compliments from friends and family, as well as hubby’s co-workers. I was quite surprised that they liked them because I adjusted the recipe by reducing the amount of oil and sugar used. I thought that only my family members would be able to appreciate them. Oh, even my skeptical hubby told me that I did a good job and asked me to bake more as gifts for our friends. I was thrilled with his nod of approval.

Four variations of medium sized moonies – green tea, black sesame, white lotus and coffee.

This batch in “five nuts” turned out a little too pale for my liking.

Look at the nuts inside! Surprisingly this is my younger daughter’s favourite. She loves the nutty filling.

Individually wrapped and sealed, all ready to be packed as gifts.

Packed in self-made containers

All ready to be delivered to my girls’ teachers, our friends and family members.

I am glad that my first attempt at mooncake making turned out so well. I had so much fun making them and the lantern containers. They kept me sane during the home-bound days last month, my only “sunshine” in a trying month. This is my most memorable Mid-Autumn Festival, the best to-date.