Xmas party back in tokyo

Few days ago, i went to a fren's house for advance xmas party hehe. There was a gift exchange session so i brought home alot of presents! enjoyed the party so much and also enjoyed opening the presents at hm hehe.

Eyebrow Embroidery

During this sg trip, mummy has her eyebrow embroidery done up at a salon name 'sophia's brow house' which is highly rave in a forum name 'flowerpod'. it is very cheap. sgd$178 with a free facial, free touch up and a free eyebrow cream to be applied after the embroidery is done. Mummy is very satisfied with the service there though the staffs are rather pushy. sophia herself is ok. The eyebrow embroidery is not painful at all as they actually put some cream to numb the brows before they start with the embroidery process. the first time mummy did her eyebrow embroidery at another place, they didnt apply anything for her before starting the embroidery n according to her, it was a super painful n unbearable process but YET she went back to the same place for 1 touch up again few yrs back since she knows no other place and the worse thing is.. the touch up tat time wasnt free! so she paid to get herself pain hehe. wats worse.........the shape is terrible! everyone said she look like a mosquito! lol. it was unbalance and too arch.. a very bad experience.. so this time, after few yrs and her brow has faded, she decided to try sophia's brow house n she likes her brow alot this time! painless experience is great too! BUT one thing tat is not very good is she feels tat the brow colour is a bit light after it peeled.. maybe thats y she better go back for a touch up again but as she dosent have the time for it... guess she will have to do it the next time she goes back to sg...

this is how she look like immediately after the embroidery

This is after peeled (about 4 days later)

Somehow she feels she look much better before the eyebrow peel though it does looks a little dark.. but now a tad too light.. sometimes she's wondering if she should draw herself... hopefully after touch up will be darker(which dunno when it will happen...) lol

Singapore Trip 2010 nov

This november, we went to singapore for an almost 10days trip hehe. In this trip, i meetup with alot of mummy's frens and my relatives.. its been a really tiring trip.. been sleeping late everyday as mummy is never home early! though she did try to...lol. left home soon after we woke up and prepare to sleep immediately after we reached big yiyi's house (we stayed in big yiyi's house at redhill throughout these 10 days).. mummy bought me alot of toys from sg too! hehe. toys, clothes, food.. bought so much tat she went with 1 luggage but came back with 2! but anyway we enjoyed this trip alot. looking forward to go back to sg again!

wat mummy does everyday is just to meet frens for lunch, high tea n dinner so she didnt had much time to bring me to places for kids to play.. so i basically go around sg with her just to eat n eat! but she did bring me to paragon (where she bought me alot of educational toys from ELC) n i played at the open space playground there. i enjoyed myself alot! then she brought me to the zoo with ah ma.. i enjoyed myself alot too! esp the shows.. then on another day, she brought me to an indoor playground at the atlantis delta (near big yiyi's house) to meetup with my 2 cousins. only managed to meet them up for 1 day due to mummy's busy shcedule...

2 colours ribbed scarf

Recently mummy has been rushing for this scarf which she made for a fren of mine as the weather is getting cold and they are leaving for hokkaido for a holiday.. thus she dosent really have the time to blog about MANY things! lol. now she can slowly blog about what had happened in this 2 mths hehe.

Anyway this is a very easy scarf to make for beginners.

Scarf's length: 150cm

Directions: Cast on the number of stitches u like (the width of the scarf) and work on ribs of 3 (knit 3 purl 3) all front and back for as long as u like, pick up another colour of your choice and work the same till scarf measures 150cm (longer or shorter according to your own preference).

For the initial "Z", its done on a duplicate stitch.

My bday cake

Mummy made me a chocolate bday cake for my bday this year. the cake itself is the same cake tat she made for daddy's bday. a chocolate sponge cake. she just changed the decoration and used a swiss meringue chocolate buttercream instead.

bday celebration on the actual day!

Ok finally its the actual day of my bday hehe. Today, my group of frens came to my house to celebrate my bday for me! i enjoyed their accomapny so much! n mummy made me a chocolate bday cake.. hhee. im finally 2 years old as of today!

bday celebration at the zoo!

This year i seem to have alot of bday celebration lol. one day with daddy n mummy and one day with my group of frens in tokyo! we went to the zoo! the weather again is not very good.. cloudy and then started drizzling around 2pm.. however, i enjoyed myself alot! The previous time when daddy and mummy brought me to the zoo.. i didnt enjoyed myself as im scared of the animals.. but this time, i enjoyed touching them! they are so cute!

Disneyland bday celebration with daddy n mummy

this year, my bday is on a weekday too so was unable to celebrate with daddy on the exact day thus we went to disneyland for a PRE celebration on sunday (24th oct). It was a bad decision! There were many people (as expected) but its so much so that its a bit hard to push the pram around... n around 4pm.. it started to rain! HEAVY RAIN! i only manage to get onto the merry go round (which i burst out crying as im scared!), the teapot party..(i enjoyed this) and we got on a big ship hehe. thats all! but i got to eat chocolate flavoured pop corn lol. it was delicious!

Swiss Meringue Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Igredients

160g caster sugar
3 large egg whites
pinch of salt
300g unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
200g bittersweet chocolate buttons/tablets, melted


1. Melt the chocolate over a water bath or double boiler, stiring consistenly as not to burn it. Set aside and let cool.
2. Place egg whites, salt and sugar in a big stainless steel bowl. (u need a big bowl as u will be using this bowl to fluff up the egg white later unless u transfer this mixture into another big mixing bowl)
3. Set bowl over 1 inch of water in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk gently until sugar has dissolved and mixture is no longer grainy when you rub it between your fingers
4. Remove from heat and using an electric mixer, whisk on high speed until egg whites are cool to touch and fluffy (might take a while).
5. Continue beating, gradually add soft butter by tablespoon pieces and continue to beat. It will first look watery or separated but it will come together eventually
6. Once desired, pipe-able consistency has been reached, beat in cooled chocolate until well incorporated

Results: smooth cream! not too sweet too! this is definately much better than the grainy and overly sweet american buttercream! but the cream itself does feels heavier (in terms of weight) than the american buttercream. anyway YUMMY!

American basic buttercream frosting

Basic Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:
1 stick softened Butter (about 225-250g)
2 cups of powdered sugar (sifted)
2 tablespoon of milk (if necessary)
1 teaspoon vanilla eccense

Directions:
1. Cream the butter well with an electric hand mixer on low speed till light and fluffy then add the sifted powdered sugar into the butter bit by bit (there will be flying powdered sugar if added too much at a time). Add vanilla eccense. Increase speed gradually.
2. Beat the mixture till its smooth and spreadable consistency (add milk if mixture is too dry. do not add any milk if the mixture is already smooth and spreadable. add milk tablespoon by tablespoon depending on your mixture's consistency). Might takes about 15mins

** mummy didnt add any milk for the buttercream frosting as her frosting is already smooth and spreadable before milk is being added.

Results: its very beautiful BUT its grainy and also TOO sweet...but then its really easy to make though hehe.

A fren's scarf

Mummy made this scarf for a fren of mine!

Directions:
Row 1 to 11 and 15-17- Purl 2, *Knit 6, Purl 1, Knit 6, Purl 2* repeat * to * another 2 times(total 3 times) ending with Purl 2
Row 2 and all even numbered rows- Knit all knit stitches and purl all purl stitches
Row 13 and 19- Purl 2, *slip 6 into dp needle and hold in front of work, knit 6, purl 1, knit 6 from dp needle, purl 2*. repeat * to * another 2 times (total 3 times) ending with purl 2

Repeat these 20 rows for pattern.

Daddy's bday cake

Recently mummy haven been blogging often as she has been busy researching for a cake and frosting recipe for daddy's bday. Ever since she became a stay at home mum, she finds it meaningless to buy daddy presents as she will be using his $ for his present! so she has been trying to bake him a bday cake every yr.. last yr was oreo cheesecake and this year she wanna challenge something else so she decided to make a chocolate sponge cake with buttercream frosting!

Recipe for chocolate sponge cake

Ingredients:
3 eggs
90 g castor sugar
70g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
15g butter
2 teaspoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla eccense

Directions:
1. preheat the oven to 150 degree celcius (mummy's oven is rather hot thus she uses 150 for all cakes. u might want to try 170 degrees depending on your oven..)
2. crack the 3 eggs into a mixing bowl and mix with a electric hand mixer with medium speed. Slowly add in the sugar.
3. Increase the speed to high after all the sugar has been incorporated and continue to beat until light and fluffy (this may takes about 10-15mins). you should be able to 'draw' patterns which stays on top of the batter with your whisk (refer to the photos in the slideshow for consistency).
4. melt the butter and milk together in a small heat proof bowl inside the microwave oven or over a double boiler
5. Sift the cocoa powder and flour together
6. Add vanilla eccense and the sifted cocoa powder and flour (bit by bit) into the creamed mixture and fold them in
7. After mixture is well blended, add the butter+ milk and continue folding till well corperated (be careful not to over mix the batter). The batter should be very very light and resembles a chocolate moose
8. Pour the batter into a greased 18cm diameter round baking pan and set to bake for 40mins.

decorate it with buttercream

Chocolate curls

Ingredients:
2 chocolate bar of your choice

Directions:
Let chocolate bar soften a bit at room temperature and 'peel' with a vegetable peeler. depending on your preference of the chocolate curls' length, u can use the length or the width of the chocolate bar

** if the curls break during peeling, chocolate bar is still too hard. let it sit in room temperature for a while more. if chocolate bar starts to melt halfway while 'peeling', put it back into the fridge for a while before continuing with the curls.

Winter purchases!

Today we went out to buy some winter attire since ive grown out of the ones i bought last yr... Recently the weather suddenly turn cold but mummy realised that i do not have enough bottoms (long pants n thights) to survive even this season (autumn)! Then she bought me boots too! lol OF COS ive grown out of the ones we bought last yr too...

When i got home, i insist to try on ALL the purchases! Then kept exclaiming "WOW KAWAII!" then ask mummy to "PHOTO PHOTO" take photos of them. lol.

the best part of it is...all these cost only less than 15,000yen! (less than sgd$200) INCLUDING the 2 boots!

E-mook (Kitson)

ok this is not about me but about mummy hehe. Its the first time she bought herself an e-mook bag despite being here in japan for so long. reason being..the designs are either not her cup of tea, material looks cheapo, too small etc etc..but then somehow this kitson bag caught her eye (perhaps cos of the bling bling pouch and the wordings on the actual tote bag hehe) and she had been thinking bout it so soooooooooo super long before she decided to buy 1! However, she was so super dissappointed when the bag turns out so ugly (the colour was super dull as compared to the samples that she saw at kinokuniya...) so she decided to do an exchange. and she is very happy with her exchange!

BTW, this is the one she got when she first bought! Terrible isnt it?? its super dull purple instead of the pink shown above!

My new fren!

Today mummy bought me a soft toy doggy! I love it alot!

Beat your backside!

My first lantern festival!!

Today i went to a fren's house to celebrate lantern festival here in tokyo! its the first time i celebrated this festival hehe. and of cos my first time holding a lantern... i had so much fun! thanks to mummy's fren for bringing some lantern and mooncakes back for us to be able to celebrate it here in tokyo... thanks so much auntie Jelyn!

PINK scarf!

Mummy was saying the scarf she made for me last yr looks a bit boyish for me now (i didnt have alot of hair so mummy says i will look wierd in sweet girly colours!) so she decided now that its time for her to knit me a PINK one since i have longer hair now though still THIN! lol the previous scarf cost much cheaper than this one in total though.. in terms of worthiness, think the old one is still alot more value for $ lol.

This one, she need to buy 3 balls of yarn as this yarn is finer.. so instead of 2, she bought 3.. one ball of yarn cost about 1620yen (cheaper than the previous 1800yen).. which includes delivery fee n all, already cost her 5888yen! then, this time she decides to make my scarf cuter by adding pom poms at the ends as fringe... so today she went to buy pom pom maker (about 500yen per pack) and 2 balls of yarn for the pom pom (she plan to make a 2 colour pom pom hehe) for 380yen each... so total cost for this whole project cost her about 8000yen!!!! which is about 120sgd?? omg... totally not value for $ mummy!

Materials for the pom poms!

Ok this is the completed scarf before the pom poms are added. The design this time is so super complicated and mummy made ALOT of mistakes here n there... hai~ a not so value scarf with lots of mistakes!

Directions:

Cast on 60 stitches (design works with a multiple of 10 stitches)
Row 1- P2, K3 *P4, K6* repeat from * to * : ending P5
Row 2 and all even numbered rows- K the K sts as they face u and P the p sts
Row 3- P2, K3, *P4, work 6 st left crossover as follows : slip 3 to dp needle and hold in front of work, K3. K3 from dp needle. *; repeat from * to * ending with P5
Row 5- P2, *work 5 st left cross as follows: slip 3 to dp needle and hold in front, P2, K3 from dp needle then work 5 st right cross as follows: slip 2 to dp needle and hold in the back, K3, P2 from dp needle *; repeat from * to *, ending with 5 st left cross, P3
Row 7- P4, * work 6 st right cross over as follows: slip 3 to dp needle and hold in back, K3, K3 from dp needle, P4 *; repeat from * to *, ending with K3, P3
Row 9- P2, *work 5 st right cross, then 5 st left cross * ; repeat from * to *.

***Repeat row 3-10 for pattern

Mummy spent bout 2 weeks to get this scarf done (without counting the pom poms of cos).. rushing the work only when i nap (1.5hrs) or during my sleep at night (about 4hrs per night)

Mummy thought the colour for this scarf is very nice until she saw the other ball of yarn she bought for the pom poms. its seems brighter! suddenly the colour of this scarf seems so dull...anyway mummy will add the pom poms these few days and then she will wear it on me for photo taking purpose lol. will post up then! stay tune!

DONE FINALLY!