Smile

Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it's breaking.
When there are clouds in the sky
you'll get by.

If you smile through your pain and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll see the sun come shining through
For you.

Light up your face with gladness,
Hide every trace of sadness.
Although a tear may be ever so near
That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use of crying.
You'll find that life is still worthwhile-
If you just smile.












Even though you were only a part of my life for a mere 8 months you had become more than just a pet. You were the bright spot in my otherwise mundane everyday. Thank you for being in my life.

RIP Bun-bun

A big surprise!

My aunt (my mom's older sister)never had kids. When we were younger she stayed with us and helped bringing the three of us up, so she's been like a second mother to us. Scolding us, teaching us, molding us into the individuals we are today. Eventually she got married at a much later age and due to various reasons I won't disclose here she decided against having kids.

I once jokingly said to her that she must've been scared of the prospect of having kids after raising us three. She just laughed, shaked her head and smiled to herself...

... Wait, what?!?

XD She never really elaborated any further on that but every year on Mother's Day or her birthday we still do a little something for her. Usually we get her a gift and I make her a cake (something with coconut since that's her favorite).

So this year we decided to play a trick on her. I knew that she was supposed to be in a meeting all morning until 2pm. So around 11.30am I quickly called her husband to give him a heads up and let him know we were on our way. Much to my surprise, it was a female voice picking up the phone... wait she sounded an awful lot like my aunt...wait, it WAS my aunt. Panic ensued and I desperately tried to think of something remotely intelligent to say so that she wouldn't have any suspicions. No, she wouldn't be coming over, yes the meeting had been cancelled, yes she was sure she'd stay in all day now cause she was tired...

I hung up the phone, very disappointed. What to do now?My uncle didn't even know about this, that was what the phone call was for. Argh! Several days of planning all ruined all because we didn't take into account a minor detail.

What to do now?

At this point my mom stepped into action, resourceful as ever :) She called them up again, asking to talk to my uncle, explained the whole situation and asked if he could drag her out of the house and over here. By then, we expected my aunt to suspect something was going on, so I quickly ran over to the local supermarket and picked up a "raspberry swiss roll" as a decoy. To be perfectly honest, I felt kinda embarrassed, standing in the ready-made cake department. I've never even looked at store-bought cakes before. We're not talking about bakeries but more like those prepackaged cakes available in supermarkets.

Anywhoodle, I rushed home, dumped the cake on a plate and waited for my aunt and uncle to swing by. When we saw them through the window we quickly covered up what we were doing and rushed to the door to greet them and sing "Happy Birthday" The funny thing is, the worst part wasn't seeing the hidden disappointment in my aunts face when she saw the swiss roll but more the fact that I actually had to eat an entire slice. We all did... My mom discreetly pulled my uncle to the side and asked for his house keys and after they left, we quickly packed up and drove to their place and finished arranging the surprise.

My uncle came in the door first and headed for the kitchen pretending to do his normal routine. When my aunt came through the door we had the cake in hand and yelled surprise. She looked very surprised, almost shocked.


Unfortunately we didn't get a picture with her surprised face but this was snapped just 2 seconds after.



The coconut deluxe. Replacing regular milk with coconut milk for the cake, then there's a coconut cream filling in the middle and then it's got glazing topped with shredded coconut.



My uncle then proceeded to the living room but seeing what was in there, he quickly closed the door and went into another room. So unknown to what was waiting for her my aunt opened the door and saw this:










I know it might not seem like a lot of balloons but when we were blowing them up it seemed like a million, well to me at least.

At the end of the day she was thoroughly surprised and very happy. She really didn't see it coming especially after the swiss roll decoy. Now the only thing is, we have to come up with something even bigger for her birthday next year...

Finally the temperatures are going down

It's not the warm weather I mind, well not as much as certain people I know at least. The issue I have here is...well. For those of you who know me in person can testify that I'm not exactly skinny, not that I'm morbidly obese either but you probably won't see me on the runways of Paris anytime soon. To put it in a nice way I have love handles... and front handles and back handles and side handles as well. To top it off, I have something that has a charming name like bingo wings. (Don't know what it is? Consider yourself lucky and please take 20 seconds to wikipedia the term in order to read on.)

You will almost positively never find me in something with bare arms and if you do it's very certain I'm wearing a cardigan, shrug or other piece of fabric to cover up the monstrosities. I especially hate it during the heatwaves in summer and people inquire whether I'm hot and if I wouldn't want to take off my cardigan and I look at them, all red and sweaty in the face, shake my head furiously and assure them that "I'm quite fine, thank you"

Beause heaven forbid that they see any more of my flesh than they have to. I would actually rather suffer in silence with beads of sweat trickling down my face and back than scare children and elderly people or anyone who is so lucky to have ventured out in the public the same time I have.

So, even though I enjoy the sun and the summer I certainly do not enjoy the outfits I have to wear during that time. Sure, I don't NEED to cover up but the reason that I'm so self-conscious is that I'm guilty of thinking to myself, every time I see an overweight person letting it all hang out or twisting and screwing themselves into an outfit that's several sizes too small, GEEZ cover some of that up, will you? And because I think the things I do is why I'm afraid to prioritize comfort over covering up.

So, yes I know that I need the change to start with myself first. Because if I can start seeing people of all shapes and sizes wear whatever they like, maybe I will dare venture out in a more baring ensemble. Not now though... but maybe next summer :)

Trip around the lake

Not too long ago, I suggested my sister that we take a walk after dinner. She was pretty reluctant at first but then she agreed.

I remembered a lake not far from where we live that we used to go to almsot weekly when we were kids. My mom would give us leftover bread from the restaurant and we would go with our grandparents and feed the ducks. For some reason I haven't been there in more than a decade, so I suggested we go there.









As the female swan and cygmets changed direction, the swan father rose up from the water and came towards us. Now, it's not very clear in the pictures and seeing swans in the water they look so regularsized. But trust me when I say that this swan was HUGE!!!

We kept walking and to our surprise saw a wall we'd never seen before. We call it the surprised wall :)



I might not be a teenager but I'm still young at heart. :) My sister snapped these pictures of me doing hopscotch!

On our way back, we found a line swing (sorry don't know the actual name) and of course we had to try it.

Weeeeee!!!


It was a lovely walk and it makes me want to take more walks in our area to explore som more :) I love it when I find something new.

Navy line

Hi Lovelies ^^

It's been a while since my last post, I've been a little busy but I'm back with a new EOTD.

Eyes:
Electric blue liquid eyeliner lined on upper lashline, then lightly topped with black liquid liner to make the blue less harsh.
Eyeshadow in "Ink" on inner 2/3 of lid and "Midnight" on outer 1/3 of lid. Blend and apply lightly on lower lashline. The "Ink" eyeshadow is such a gorgeous navy-purple loose shimmery eyeshadow. *LOVE*

Both eyeshadows I got here: FormulaD

I believe these two are sold out but there are many other to choose from and they're all handcrafted and vegan. A fellow blogger Click here makes them herself. Feel free to check out her blog and shop and show some support.







Thanks for looking!

Happy 101 award

So I got tagged by Londons Boutique

Rules are fairly straightforward, state 10 things that make you happy and tag people.

So here we go:

I'm a simple creature who take delight in simple things

1. Good food, delicious chocolate, fine wine and great coffee (might as well put all the edibles under point 1, otherwise it's going to be a list full of food.)

2. Being in the company of family and good friends (preferably with food involved)

3. Procuring an item you had no idea you needed but realize is something you can't live without (e.g. my handheld blowtorch for making creme brulee)

4. Music (one of the greatest pleasures for me, it lifts my spirits and runs through my veins. I can't go a day without it)

5. Making other people happy (How cheesy as this may sound it really does it for me. When you get a heartfelt smile from a stranger or when the eyes of my family members light up when I serve them a nice dessert, it's really all worth it)

6. When I finally solve a Sudoku puzzle that has been unsolvable for days, when I beat a Bejeweled high score or play a fantastic round of Modern Warfare ^o^

7. Shopping. Finding a fantastic item of clothing or the most gorgeous handbag or maybe a pair of heels I can't live without. That will surely make my day. I know, I'm a material girl but I love it (and my things)

8. Unexpectedly finding money in the pocket of an old winter coat

9. Some me time, be it taking a long walk, eating ice cream, snuggling up with a good book, playing games or taking a nap. Some solitude has a therapeutic effect on me.

10. The fact that my family and I are happy and healthy



I tag...anyone who hasn't done or wants to do this.

Raspberry mousse cake

When I asked my sister what she wanted for her birthday she simply replied: Nothing... well maybe your raspberry mousse cake :D

So, as the doting sister I am I made not only one for her birthday but I made 3, yes 3 raspberry mousse cakes. I def feel I've got the technique down now! One was for the birthday which is why I decorated it with and the other two were for the extended family and for her to bring to work. It was a huge success at her workplace btw.




I won't be posting the recipe here, sorry. The reason being that I'm thinking about selling them to friends, family and acquaintances and I'd like to keep at least this recipe a secret for now.

The bottom is a brownie-ish cake. The white stuff is a cream cheese/yogurt filling. Then there's a layer of blackberry puree, raspberry mousse and then raspberry jelly.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.