Thursday, August 30, 2012

colors of rainbow!


Happy 3rd Birthday CRG! :D
ED decided to make things more fun by dressing up in colors of the rainbow!



Had tons of goofy times at the photo booth with the props provided :D
The theme was Retro, and we tried to fulfill both the rainbow theme and retro theme. lol!
Retro was through accessories I guess? :P

Other than the usual food and chit-chatting,
the organizers decided to do games as well.
Shooting hoops, marbles, chaptek.. and ED won first! :D
Seriously, I'm super proud to be in ED cuz we're so united!
Hanging around with a bunch of colleagues in the same age group is really cool.
Cuz you tend to be on the same frequency, 
and want to do the same stuff as well.

After the CRG's birthday bash,
it was ED Bonding session.
Every quarter of the year, we are allowed to take half day for a sectional bonding (:
(so awesome right! :P)
So we trooped off to KTV at Scape. 
A good crazy 3 hours of non-stop singing (and screaming). haha!
It's days like these which make me feel like work is tolerable. lol.
Like no matter how tough the work is, 
you know you have great people around you to help you out (:

I think this is very critical in determining your happiness at work.
There's this girlfriend who's having a difficult time settling into her current workplace.
I really do sympathize with her.
Work is never easy, but if the colleagues are cold and indifferent,
it makes work feel 10 times harder. :(
 Hopefully she can find a colleague with the same frequency soon..


Tried out Manhatten's Lobster Platter!
There were sides such as fish nuggets, fried calamaris, mussels in butter herb sauce, boiled vegetables,
and butter herb rice.
Omg, I totally love their butter herb rice. 
But it could be made better by adding raisins inside.
haha, I have a great liking for raisins in flavored rice as such (:

The lobster looks huge right?
But as well, it just looks big. 
The amount of flesh wasn't very satisfying. 
But oh wells, I'm just such as sucker for lobsters and crabs (:

Tomorrow's friday already!
We will be going down to JB to select our prewedding shoot photos on sunday!
I sooooo cannot wait :D



Saturday, August 18, 2012

August - Signs of Autumn

I've been on a macaons-baking frenzy these 2 weeks.
Can't remember what ignited this mac-craziness in me again,
but yea, I did Chocolate, Lemon and Mint Chocolate macarons. lol.
I guess the happiness dervied from seeing perfectly formed macarons made me look forward to baking more of them. 




The thing about macarons is that they are such finicky little things.
Giving them less-than-perfect conditions will lead to an entire batch of failed macarons. lol.
In the past, sadly, my macarons have always failed.
They were either too damp, feetless, had hollow shells, or collapsed mercilessly after baking.
le sigh.

The good news is that, I finally got myself a new oven and a hand mixer recently,
and the macarons journey has never been smoother. lol.
I really should have gotten the mixer earlier.
I doubt I could ever whisk the egg whites so properly with just my physical arm strength.

Ultimately, I baked too much,
and I ended up feeding my office girls with the macs. haha!
Of the lot, my fav is still the lemon macarons.
The sour lemon curd is definitely an awesome complement to the sugar overloaded mac shells. 

For now, I think it's time for a macaron hiatus
Maybe I will move on to muffins or something (:
The office girls have requested for a banana chocolate cake.
Shall see what I can whip up (:


------



Had a gathering with the psych clique.
It's rare where the clique meets out of Yy's house.
(though in the end, it was still board games at his place. lol).

It was even more rare that the agreement was to meet for brunch. 
Simply cuz brunch is too early for working adults like ourselves.
So meeting at 11am at Spruce was really a huge step out of our comfort zone. lol.

Spruce is located at Upper Bukit Timah,
where the old Bukit Timah Fire station is at.
Thank goodness for the huge Spruce signboard that is easily spotted along the road.



Had ordered The Spruce Big Breakkie, eggs done in scrambled style.
It's my fav style, but this one's kind of disappointing.
The portion was small, and the eggs were too dry for my fancy.
The bratwurst was alright, bacon was too dry.
The only saving grace was that the food was hot when served.
Overall, I still prefer the Bukit Timah Saddle club's version.


Here's YY's order. 
Beef burger with wedges.
Guess he was in the lunch mood already!


------


Gatherings wise, I also went for a colleague's farewell dinner.
It was at BigBang Korean BBQ restaurant located  near our office.
It's been a long while since I had korean bbq.
The bbqed saba fish was good (:
Soft and flavorful even after bbq-ing.

We sat in there for about 2.5 hours,
and we reeked of oil and smoke all over after that.
omg, it was so bad that I had to ask the boy to come pick me.
I didn't dare to use public transport cuz the smell made me so self-conscious. lol.
*bimbo moment.

Anyway, here's the farewell card we did up.
We were all supposed to give a funny / stupid / dumb / ugly look.
They insisted I didn't look the part. lol!



------


On something totally unrelated,
I got myself a Vanity Trove Surprise Box :D
This was the August one, and its theme is Rocket Science. 
It contained so much awesome stuff (:


 Yes, I know.. these are just sample stuff.
But I think it's a good way to explore new products in the market without paying the premium for a an original sized version.
These samples are generously sized, and should suffice to tell if the product's good after the sample trial!

But funnily enough, July's box seems to contain 2 version of the same stuff.
Like 2 bottles of Innershine, 2 types of make-up removal.
I haven't tried most of the stuff, except for the Innershine drinks.
But here's the write-up and list of stuff in the box






Now I'm going to rummage through the box again to see what I can use :D
Can't wait to get September's box! 
oh my, I'm such a sucker for such marketing gimmicks :P


Friday, August 3, 2012

Photoshoot



The two days photoshoot is overrrr!
Thank goodness for the awesome weather, 
and for the entire crew who were ever so accomodating and professional.
HS managed to sneak in a few photos (:



The shoot for the first day was at JB.
Kicked off with the studio shots (first two photos above),
then off to this vintage place called Roost Cafe (photo above).
The day ended with the photoshoot at Danga Bay, where we took photos on a pretty carousel.
The entire shoot lasted till around 8pm only as the photographer knew what he wanted,
and captured the angles really smoothly.

In hindsight, I thought my first day's make-up and hairstyles were too mature looking and dramatic.
The eyelashes made my eyes look humongous.





------


For the second day shoot at Singapore,
we still went to their studio for the make-up and hair preparation first.
Decided to pick out a pair of less dramatic looking eyelashes,
and insisted on hairstyles that better reflect my personality / style.
Hence, this is the final make-up and hairstyle for our first shoot in Singapore at National Museum (:
Didn't really like that malayish looking hair piece, 
but I let it stay with me for half the shoot at Museum 
as my stylist has plonked it unto my hair before I could stop her.
But she took it off my hair for latter half of the shoot. 
Whee (:



Following the shoot at National Museum,
we headed off to Marina Barrage.
Apologies for the not so well taken photo below.
I guess the sunlight got in the way for this photo.
We were there around 5pm, and the sky was cloudy! :D
The feel is supposedly young and energetic,
hence the short dress, balloons and side ponytail.

The hairstyle is not really what I wanted,
but the stylist didn't agree with my proposed hairstyle.
Thus, this is the compromised hairstyle. haha.
She called it the "ice-cream" hairstyle cuz she thought it resembles an ice cream cone -.-
The dress is kinda loose, should have asked to tailor it tighter.
But overall, I thought this was the most fun portion of the shoot.
We got to play in water :D
Such an awesome treat in the humid weather.



After Marina Barrage, we went off to Gardens by the Bay!
But then, it was dusk, and I changed out to a white trumpet gown.
Hairstyle was a loose half updo.
Pretty ok with this hairstyle. 
Chanced upon the OCBC lightshow.. but hmm.. it wasn't very nice.



Wrapping up the night was a shoot at Marina Bay Sands Boardwalk.
Wanted to play with sparklers here, but the sparklers we got weren't working.
Couldn't get the effect we wanted, so it was cancelled.
The photographer seemed to like this dress alot as it was flowy.
Made me play with this dress quite a bit.
Thought this dress made me look fat.
Hopefully the photos turn out ok!

This hairstyle wasn't decided on beforehand.
The stylist saw that I was feeling warm, so she braided my hair. haha.
Didn't really like the style, but it aided in making me feel cooler.



The entire shoot lasted till 10.30pm.
We were so deadbeat thereafter.
And my face had a bad reaction to the long hours of make up.
The humidity didn't help either.
Was shocked to see patches of red blotches on my face when I got home.
Took about 10 rounds of make-up removal to settle the removal,
a facial scrub to cleanse the pores,
and 2 rounds of washing to feel squeaky clean.
The red blotches were better after washing,
and I applied softener and moisturizer before I slept.
They have since subsided, and finally I can feel that my skin is breathing. haha.
I sure hope this doesn't happen on my wedding day!

That's all for nowwwww.
Will only get the photos in about a month's time.
Next up will be the families' dinner this Sunday (: