The girlies from my previous job popped by the nest yesterday and we had such a great time!

I whipped up some simple dishes and along with the delicious, fluffy chocolate cake from Jane's Cake Station that the girls have bought, we were glued to the dining table chatting away for the next couple of hours.

Before they left, I was gifted with a couple of polaroid pictures which really made me very touched *sniff*. You hardly get hardcopies of photos these days and it's always special to receive one, especially polaroid ones.


Definitely hope to have the girls over again soon! Will endeavour to hold one before I depart.

 

It's gonna be my first venture out with KATHEYL to participate in the 4th Singapore Arts Street (http://www.singaporeartsstreet.com/).

Happening on 11 and 12 July, the event will be held at Marine Parade Promenade (area that is sandwiched between Parkway Parade and Marine Parade Hawker Centre). Here's the event brochure for more information:

http://www.singaporeartsstreet.com/sas2009se_overview/sas2009_se_brochure_final_web.pdf

I'm excited with the opportunity of participating in an art fair and also the chance to see the works of other crafters/artists. It's gonna be a fun-filled event and I'm definitely looking forward to the experience!

So do drop by with your family and friends over the next weekend, and say hi if you see me!

I wanna go for the Opening Performance of Singapore Sun Festival 2009!! It's gonna be International Ballet Gala that features principal dancers from Bolshoi Theatre and Mariinsky Theatre!

I used to watch ballet performances on the defunct Channel 12 when I was much younger. Back then they would show the full ballet performances by Bolshoi and I would be glued to my seat for as long as the show was on (even to the wee hours). Beats me where the interest in ballet came from since my tubby body shape is definitely not one of a ballerina's!

Anyway, too bad we don't have such treats on TV anymore, and we rarely get top ballet troops to come to Singapore (SDT is just not good enough).

I've missed Bolshoi's performance when they were in town last year, so I'm hoping to catch this if I could grab someone to go with me. This is really too good to be missed given that Mariinsky is involved too. The prices are a bit steep and I'm not sure anyone would be keen to pay for the best seats.

Hmm.....

My good old digicam has finally died on me. Despite its 4 megapix resolution and small screen, it has served me very well for the past 6 years.

Now I'm on the look out for a new digicam. Any good ones to recommend?

I can't remember when was the last time we had a rainy day! Today's weather is definitely a pleasant surprise.

I reached home early after popping by the lawyer's to settle some paperwork for the nest. Am very pleased that I managed to slot in a run before dinner.

Maybe it's the weather (though I don't think it makes much difference when it comes to working out in the gym), I completed the run pretty effortlessly, despite wobbling quite a bit today (strange). I felt like I could still run some more but had to stop because I didn't want to hold up dinner.

I hope there will be more of such days to come - great weather and good runs.

I think I'm pretty sedated now, especially after a glass of milk. Shall turn in early tonight.

Did another major cook-out today to celebrate Fathers' Day. Here's the menu for the day:

1. Winter melon soup (brewed the entire afternoon with peanuts, corns, carrots and chicken bones)
2. Asparagus with seafood
3. Mussels in white wine and herbs (basil and rosemary)
4. Mashed potatoes topped with mozzarella cheese
5. Lime and lemongrass chicken

No photos 'cos everyone was hungry and wiped out the food before I could grab the camera.

I think I'm slowly getting the hang of cooking for larger groups. I love cooking for others but it's exhausting to have to do it on my own (especially for a big group) since I'm very fussy about what goes into my dishes - only the freshest ingredients and no ready-made stuff as much as possible. I also make sure the food are marinated for at least a day.

Guess it's time for me to hit the sacks soon. I think the flu bug is creeping up on me again.

Saw this interesting website - www.Exboyfriendjewelry.com

It's of little wonder that the bulk of the items on sale are rings. I think it's a great recycling idea, though personally I'm not comfortable in buying stuff that come with sad stories.

Yup, I am participating in the Yart Sale on Etsy sponsored by Team ESST!

So what exactly is a “Yart Sale,” you may ask? The term Yart is an artistic spin on the traditional yard sale:
Etsy's Second Annual Yart Sale will be from Wednesday, June 10 through Sunday, June 14, 2009.

I will be involved in all 5 days of the sale whereby a few of my favorite works will be going at 15% discounted price.

So swing by http://katheyl.etsy.com between June 10 - 14 for special yart sale items. Happy Yarting!

I hope I'm not coming down with the flu. The symptoms are sneaking up on me and it's not funny, especially when I've got new (and urgent) assignments this week.

Oh well...

So the husband has hung up his latest piece for the living room before he left. Here's what we have for this quarter:


SH has this design in his mind for a long time and we were delighted when we saw a similar one in Munich. Only problem was it cost a whopping 500 Euros! I was so in love with it but wasn't quite prepared to pay so much for lights.

So he decided to make one. It was a tedious process and took 3 days to complete, but I'm very happy with the end product.

Ok, time for bed. Hopefully I can sleep off those flu symptoms.

Woke up to a hearty breakfast that was lovingly prepared by the husband before he left for his errands:


Meanwhile, our resident bird-chirping doorbell is ready for use. Our poor visitors no longer have to bang on the door till their hands are sore.
.

I've been living 'clock-less' for the past 8 months (save for my bedside alarm clock) as the husband had promised to make them for me. And they are finally done!




Besides the clocks, he's making 2 sets of lights for the living area. I was joking with my friends that I get new lights for the living room every 3 months.

He has also hung up the pre-wedding shoot photos in our room.


Now I'm waiting for him to fix up the bird-chirping door bell, which he has designed and built the circuit from scratch.

After more than a year of hiatus, I've finally visited the dentist today. Everything's fine (I reckon so since I brush my teeth 3 times a day) except for an abrasion cavity on one of my molars.

The cause of it? My over-zealous brushing. It's quite hilarious when I think about it. I've never heard of anyone who has such problem! Guess it's time to get a softer toothbrush and replace the lunchtime brushing session with mouth-rinse.

Since I've now got 2 mums to celebrate Mothers' Day with, I thought it would be a good idea to gather both families together for the occasion.

So while the elders entertained themselves with mahjong, the younger ones hogged the Wii games for the entire afternoon. I had to literally drag myself away so that I could prepare dinner.



Menu for the evening:
1. Lotus root soup (brewed for 3 hours with spare ribs, wolfsberry and peanuts)
2. Stir fry broccoli with squid, prawns, fishballs and lots of garlic
3. Grilled chicken wings (marinated with honey, olive oil, lime and a whole host of stuff which I can't recall now :P)
4. Steamed tiger prawns drizzled with butter lemon sauce
5. Braised pork with mushrooms
6. Strawberries in sugar syrup (not in the picture)

Glad that everyone had enjoyed the dishes and cleared out almost all the food. The elders love the soup and braised pork, which I've specially made for them as I know they like such dishes.

The day ended with more mahjong and Wii. I think my muscles are so going to ache later in the day :P

I'm so in love with these:

I love simple designs like those above that I can wear on a daily basis. No need to worry if they would clash with my outfits.

And I was trawling through PeripheryDesigns some days back, struggling to stop myself from buying too many things. I've finally decided on this pair of earrings for the time being.


I love earrings as they don't get in the way like necklaces and bracelets do. Unfortunately, I've got sensitive ears and have to be extra careful with the kind of materials used.

I was also looking for a decent passport holder. The one which I have bought eons ago (more than 5 years?) is going into pieces. Then I saw this:


This will come in really handy as I can slot my boarding pass together with the passport, and there's a slot for pen too!. No more digging through my bags for the items separately!

Now that the dust of the AWARE saga has almost settled (hopefully), we can all learn a thing or two from the whole episode:

1. Never get into the bad books of the media - Just look at the spike of AWARE's membership over the last month, and how the newspaper reports are being written.

2. Always make sure you are fully armed before you enter a battlefield.

3. Lastly, never ever offend a woman (in this case, WOMEN) 'cos hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Most men understood this perfectly and for those who are still clueless, this is one important lesson they need to learn from.

I'm not a fan of bags but this one really catches my attention:


I love the bags from dee-HAY-mer. Some of them are even made from recycled items like gunny sacks!

And I also spied some simple and nice pieces from PeripheryDesigns:


I really, really like the bracelets! Problem is that I'm usually too lazy to accessorise myself. But then again, these are simple enough to wear with any outfit. Hmm.....

I've started printing out namecards for KATHEYL, which was designed by the husband, who seems to have knack in designing almost anything.


While I'm capable of designing accessories, I'm totally hopeless when it comes to graphic design. Thankfully SH has got the talent to do it and I'm quite happy to leave things in his hands. He would come up with some designs for me to pick and then patiently alter them to my satisfaction, which can be a rather tedious process since his fickle-minded wife usually can't decide what she wants.

He's also the one who came up with the name "KATHEYL" (which is a combination of my English name "Katherine" and my initials "Y.L.") and its logo.

The husband isn't someone who's good at words or openly shows his affections to me. He shows his love by supporting the things I do in his own ways and he is never too far whenever I needed him. He has always given me a feeling of contentment and assurance which enable me to do and achieve things that I've never thought I could do.

Not that I've made great achievements in my life, but I know I've grown and matured under his guidance and support, and I will continue to do so.

The weather has been tremendously hot nowadays, even for me who has high heat tolerance. I can imagine how hot it must be for most people out there.

Perfect weather to soak in the pool, or in my case, work on a few new items.


Will be uploading to the KATHEYL soon. Right now, I need to go cool myself down in the pool.

The Cutues descended upon the nest on Good Friday for what was supposed to be a farewell party for me. Anyway, who cares about the real purpose of the party as long as we have fun and loads of food.