Swan Lake.

Swans in Botanical Garden @ the Swan Lake!

Shop List for Christmas!

It's not snowing (it's raining) in Singapore but at least it is snowing in my blog. (:

Despite the rain, Singapore is always the prettiest and most picturesque in December. The colour of the sky when the sun is completely out. Even when it is raining, it's so lovely.

Maybe it is just because Christmas is coming. :D

In the spirit of Christmas, I decided to do a list of place you can get your presents from. Places that are more or less one stop for all.

1) Egg3

- 33 Erskine Road, #01-10/11/12, Singapore 089333

- HQ, 260 Joo Chiat Road, Singapore 427514

- Mandarin gallery, 333a Orchard Road, #04-26, Singapore 238859

- Cathay Building, 2 Handy Road, #01-04, Singapore 229233

Photos taken from the official website

When I walked in to the branch in The Cathay, ground floor, I love the interior of the place. It was a place of fashion and designs. They have vases, clothes hangers, shoes, clothes, sunglasses, bags, watches and tons more.

http://eggthree.com/

2) TotallyHotStuff

The Cathay, 2 Handy Road, Singapore 229233, #02-13

Photo taken from: http://decorlavie.blogspot.com/ and official website.

GADGET. CLOCKS. DECALS. ACCESSORIES. HOMEWARE. OFFICE. COLLECTIBLES. BAGS

These are what you can find in this little lovely place. I'm a sucker for the bags they have there. Oh and their clocks!! They have the coolest clock ever (not reflected in their website though). I got a feeling that the things there are updated all the time and there are many many one-of-a-kind piece, which is great for individualists. :D

http://www.totallyhotstuff.com/contact.html

3) Anthropology

- The Scarlet Hotel, 33 Erskine Road #01-06/07, Singapore 069333
- Holland Village, 16A Lorong Mambong, Singapore 277677
- Raffles City Shopping Centre, 252 North Bridge Road, #B1-77/78, Singapore 179103

Photo takes from: http://www.bdiff.com.sg/store.php

http://icinggifts.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-icing-accessories-available-now-in.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/odditii/166230389/

This place is totally famous. It has really charming and a variety of things from different brands, stores and designers.

http://www.anthropology.com.sg/

4) IKEA

- 317 Alexandra Road, Singapore 159965
- 60 Tampines North Drive 2, Singapore 528764

Photos taken from the official website

We all know IKEA. It is one of the most awesome place to be at any time, especially during festive seasons. The ambiance is just so delightful and lively there. The buzz and the beautiful simple yet elegant and most importantly CHEAP everyday items.

They have just about every household item and honestly, if you don't like what they have, you can buy materials from there and make you own.

http://www.ikea.com.sg/xmas2009/

5) Wood Would

- Unit 03-24, Mandarin gallery 333A, Orchard Road

- Unit 03-03, The Cathay, Two Handy Road

Photos taken from the official website

Another great place. Everytime I walk in there, I never ever get out there until I have explored EVERY item in there. They are just so pretty, just so so gorgeous!! The papers, designs, toys and the interior designs. Goodness. There is no way a stationary, book-lover would not like this place.

http://woodwould.wordpress.com/

These are pretty well known shops but still worth introducing.

I am finally posting something related to Christmas! :D I still really want to take photos of the Christmas lighting this year. I will! I have too!!! I'll definitely post it when I am done. (:

What you can look forward to for the time being is my post on the lovely places one can go to for designers' furnitures. Design lovers will go crazy seeing all these exquisite and bewitching furnitures.

Picnic!

I met up with a bunch of my most darling friends and we had a picnic together at Botanical Garden. (:

We had such a good time! The weather was great despite the rain in the morning. There was only a little small sprinkle of rain and it was pretty cooling. Plus the food was so good and the company was fabulous. (:

I made Rasperry Chocolate Pavlova and an antioxidant fruit salad. Both are Nigella's recipes. For those who know me, you will know that I ADORE Nigella. She is totally my "sifu" (master in Chinese)!

Where we sat (Swan Lake Garden). I love the pavilion.

The spread!

My lovely Raspberry Chocolate Pavlova with Creme Fraiche that is totally sinful. :D

The awesome place Jie Min and Wan Ying got the really delicious pizzas from.

This was a house specialty that is simply heavenly. You can smell the herbs and button mushrooms the moment you open the box. The cheese was just oozing out and the parma ham was just so delicious! They have this sauce you can eat the pizza with and my goodness, the sauce just brings such a different taste to the pizza and it blends so well with the pizza's flavours. A total must try!

This one wasn't as nice as the house specialties but still yummy.

'

My antioxidant fruit salad made of mango, pomegranate and blueberries with a little touch of lime juice. Very healthy and I like it. :D Though it is a bit sharp.

After this Wan Ying and I went off to shop and walked around quite a bit looking at lovely awesome shops. (Found quite a few gems, I'll post about them when I have the chance to.) We wrapped up the day with dinner at Oriole (One of my favourite hangout place). We had pasta, quesadillas and sparkling wine (Moscato). I didn't book before going down.

It never crossed my mind that it would be fully booked so we ended up sitting outside which had horrible lighting thus I have no pictures to share. :D I go there all the time anyway so will post pictures of it in the future. (:

It finally feels like Christmas is here to me.

And I am totally loving it.

<3

Things I Do Before a Common Test.

*Grins*

I was so tempted to make something yummy and chocolate-y that I just didn't care about the paper I am having tomorrow and went to make a Chocolate Rosemary Jam. :D :D :D

I know it sound weird. I would rather put cinnamon but my grounded cinnamon is expired. I wanted to make it a little different so I added rosemary. :D :D :D Since I added about 3 huge marshmallow in, it is a little gooey and very very thick and intense which is perfect to put on plain bread. I sneakily added a teaspoon of vanilla essence because I love the smell of it. The vanilla essence made it so much more flavourful and a little heavy.

I ate a few mouthful without the bread, gave me an absolute sugar high. :D

This, my friends, is the wonderful, lovely, gorgeous SALMON. :D I have a thing for them.

It was grilled for about 20 minutes then drizzled with this Japanese sesame sauce called Kinnogomadare then grilled for another 5-8 minutes.

Simply lovely. Some oregano on top would be perfect. (:

Favourite Shot.

Happy Birthday, Junsu! This post is just for you though it's 3 minutes earlier but it is your birthday in Korea/Japan already anyway. (:

This is one of my prized shots. Took this in Taiwan. For this shot I got my shoes all muddy and my mother gave me hell about it. :D

It was totally worth it though. Might be a totally cliche shot but I absolutely love it. :D

Plus plus! I didn't edit it at all! It's all natural!

Note that it is ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Flower Therapy.

On Friday, I ended class early and it was such a pretty afternoon that I decided to head down to Far East Flora to get flowers. (:

Take a guess at what flowers I brought!

Lilies! They were only ten bucks. I couldn't resist them :D













I am so glad that I got them! Everytime I feel upset about having to study instead of enjoying my December, walking pass these lovelies, looking at them and smelling their wonderful scent makes me feel so much better. (:

Aren't they just the most gorgeous thing on earth?