project life – February

I really adore the dear lizzy lucky charm collection and used it for my february project life! Love how it made february seem like a really cheery month and february indeed was a fabulous month. Featured a few of my favourite items from TYPO in the second roll and also featured my 2 hunsies bunsies in the last roll along with the valentines day card that i made for them.

project life – january

So i have finally embarked on the project life train. I have always been a firm believer in capturing and documenting every precious moment, and project life is perfect. I actually finished this page in feb but i have been procrastinating on the uploading part. It is so difficult to take a good picture of this! to be honest, i’m still not satisfied! it looks 10000x better in real life ):

January has been a life-changing and trying month. I am not very good with words so i have engaged the help of pinterest and tumblr. I just love how images and quotes that we stumbled upon online reflect our thoughts so aptly. I guess it can be quite comforting that we are not alone feeling how we feel.  As you can tell from a few of my photos, I was trying very hard not to let negative thoughts run my life. and i am relieved to say that I’ve been quite successful! Happiness is sometimes really a choice.

owl always love you

had a tough start to 2013 but i’m back scrapping again! promised 2 of my dearest girlfriends that i will send them vday cards. slightly belated but every day is vday right? so obsessed with my owl stamp that i got from unity stamp company. It’s under their itty bitty category.

and i also can’t seem to get away from one of my favourite colours – teal. It just goes well with every other colour! Just looked through my colour combo board and i realised most of my colour schemes include some shade of blue. here’s one of my fav!

Source: design-seeds.com via Daphnie on Pinterest

 

hoping to be back with a post on my first project life attempt! laters!

christmas cards made by yours truly

getting into the festive crafty mood.

favourite photography apps

I am a self-declared instagram addict, absolutely love the filters and all. however, there are still somethings that instagram lacks of which thus led me to find other awesome photography apps on my iphone. here are my current favs.

Camera +
Price: $1.28
I love Camera + because i can brighten my photos easily and it also have some really nice filters. current fav filter include cross process under special when you click on effects ( as seen on the above photo) gives my photos a very nice faded hue.

Whitagram
Price: Free
I don’t like the black border around my landscape photos on instagram and thank gawd for whitagram, my problem is solved! i don’t have to force my photos to fit the square or deal with ugly black borders! hooray. love how the photos look like polaroids after adding the “walden” filter on instagram.

Frametastic
price: free
To create collages, i use frametastic and it’s very easy to send your images from frametastic to instagram! many different collages are available for free. I can’t seem to find one that can create 3 by 3 collage though. if you know of any apps, please let me know! thanks(:

Hoping to add more apps to this list so feel free to share!

the unofficial hong kong food guide – mandarin grill

I did a recent post of my favourite food in Hong Kong. but my meal at mandarin grill + bar deserves a post on its own. Mandarin Grill + Bar is a one Michelin Star restaurant at Mandarin Oriental and we went there to celebrate Eugene’s birthday. I’ve read the reviews on ladyironchef but seriously, reading is totally different from experiencing. The meal indeed blew our minds and stomach and everything possible.

As usual, fine dining always start of with a selection of bread. At mandarin grill, they not only serve amazing bread, but also offer you 6 different types of olive oil to go with your bread. So many decisions to make at the start of the meal. We made a mistake of having too much bread but they were sooo good.

Then came along more appetizers in very fancy arrangements.

This is actually foie gras. I felt really strange eating this cos you would expect something sweet seeing that it is a small pear but when you take a bite it is savoury. Loads of thought put into this though. A+ for effort.

We had scallops and foie gras for starters. The scallops were so fresh and juicy i felt i was living underwater, especially with the fresh seasweed beneath the scallops. The foie gras was good too but i think it was a bit too much for my liking.

As for our mains, Eugene ordered the dover sole while i ordered the lamb. Both are fantastic but by the time we reached the mains, we were beyond bloated and couldn’t believe we still have the desert ( which was what we came to mandarin grill for) I should have ordered fish instead of the lamb though cos it was quite a heavy main.

Here are the sides that came along with our mains. I think the waiter said it was celery and if it was really celery, it was the best celery i’ve ever tasted. Even eugene who hates celery had to admit it was good.

And finally after our mains, a cute young chef came out to prepare our dessert on our table. It was truly the highlight of our meal – Krug on the moon.

Firstly he sprinkled various chocolate powder on the table forming somewhat an art work. Then he put this stone-like ball on the table and starting pouring chocolate sauce on the ball. At first i thought the ball was just an ornament but when the stone-like ball starting melting, my jaws literally dropped. the ball is made of chocolate and in the ball itself it was filled with more goodness. To end off the show, the chef brought out another moon-like object and said something along the line of it being some frozen chocolate and started smashing it in front of us and somehow there was mist coming out of the chocolate creating the misty effect.i was really trying very hard to make a mental note of every sequence but it all happened to fast, hence my vague description. it was like watching a performance, you have to experience it yourself. Here’s the finished product.

It was a great dining experience. I have to say that the waiter’s enthusiasm in the food he was serving made the meal even more enjoyable. According to him, he has never seen anyone who finish the krug on the moon to make us feel better. Also, do take note that krug on the moon is meant for 2. so if you have 4 people, you have to order 2 sets.

In conclusion, if you want to splurge on a meal, this is THE place to go. good food, good service, good ambience.

because we can still do brunch at 5pm

i am so going to miss my relaxing days in Hong Kong. nothing beats brunch at 5pm. not even the rain can bring us down.