Tie back Dress

A new dress that I made for my girls. 

The fabric is very soft and I am very pleased with the result.   The girls looked pretty in it and the tie back ribbon makes it suitable for both my girls.   Hb likes this dress a lot too and thought that it is a branded hand me down dress given by my sister. 

Fulfilling a Childhood Dream...

Growing up in a Christian family, my house had always been decorated according to the yuletide every year.  We had fake snow, fake baby Jesus and even a fake stable for decorations.  The only thing lacking was a christmas tree.  Thus, it was my childhood dream to have a christmas tree at home. 

This dream does not materialised till 3 days ago.  Bought a tree and had so much fun making ornaments for it.  Nevertheless, it brought back a lot of childhood memories. 

I let my girls hang the ornaments and they were so happy that they kept dancing after putting up each ornament.  It is satisfaction in itself to see them so happy.  I myself is no less contented.  Nowadays I enjoy myself looking at the christmas tree every night with its lights on.   Now what we are lacking is some christmas carols....

Cappuccino Cupcakes

Baked some cappuccino cupcakes today.  Got the recipe from the book 'Bake-a-Boo'.  The recipe said that it can made up to 12 cupcakes but I managed to get only 9 out of this recipe.

Ingredients :

1 cup self raising flour (sifted)
1/2 cup golden castor sugar
125g butter
1 1/4 tsp vanilla essence
1tbsp + 1/4tsp instant coffee granules
2 large eggs


Method :

1) Beat butter till light and fluffy
2) Add in sugar and beat till just mixed.  Add in eggs one after another followed by the vanilla essence. 
3) Fold in flour and instant coffee granules
4) Pour batter into paper cups and bake for 20 mins in a preheated oven at 200 deg C


The cupcakes turned out fine and yummy.  However, I try not to indulge too much after all they are cakes with lots of butter and sugar.  The kids love it though.

Focaccia Bread

My sister recently recommended a website for me http://www.laurainthekitchen.com/    This website has galore of recipes and videos.  It is in this website that I came across the recipe and the video for focaccia bread.   It seems easy enough to do.  So I wasted no time at all in trying it out.

Following the recipe step by step, I found that it is indeed very easy to make the focaccia bread.  Only thing is, I do not have a mixer and had to knead the dough by hands.  Boy!  It was hard work and by the the time the dough is done, my arms are already in pain.  

The focaccia bread turned out fine and may I say, they are all gone in just one day!  I am so pleased with the result.  Now that I have 'mastered' the recipe for focaccia bread, I wonder if it is a good idea to invest in a mixer as I foresee that I will be making many more focaccias in the future.  No more kneading dough by hands then..

My Focaccia Bread

New 'Zara' Dress

It is most fortunate for me to have two beautiful daughters.  I can dress them up and never feel bored in doing so.  Perhaps my girls do not even know or appreciate just how well dressed they are, but a compliment or two from friends and relatives doesn't hurt either.

Having recently acquired a brand new Brother NV50 sewing machine, I am all eager to sew for my girls again.  I said 'again' as my sewing has gone 'cold' lately due to the terrible morning sickness that I have been having.   I had in mind the similar pattern of a beautiful Zara dress which I bought for the girls lately.  So there I go, measuring and cutting and sewing.  Funny thing is my girls reenact my action of measuring their bodies with whatever they can find, string, ribbon, etc.  It amused all of us to see them do that.  It just shows how much our action affects children.

The Zara dress was completed in just one day.  May I say I am impressed with the NV50 for edge finishing.  Not quite like a serger, but good enough.  I chosed to use the fabric that I bought from the morning market in my hometown some time ago.  Fabrics sold there are dirt cheap.  Only RM3 per meter. 

Original Zara Dress

So, here's the dress.  My maid and MIL said it look nicer than the original Zara dress.  More body, they said.  Whether or not they are just being polite, I am most willing to accept their compliment at its face value.   :D

My own creation of the  'Zara Dress'

Kindle 3 as Companion

With the bouts of contractions as the pregnancy progresses, the dr thinks it would be safer for me to get warded in the hospital for bed rest and observation.  So here I am, in the maternity ward. 

Staying in the ward would be like prison to some.  However, I came prepared this time round.  I have my laptop, broadband internet as well as my e book reader, the Amazon Kindle 3 with me.

The Kindle is really God send.  I have hundreds of e books saved in it, which is really not that much compared to those avid book readers.  My collection is growing though.  In average, I finished up a book in just one morning in the ward.  So having hundreds of books in my Kindle is really a blessing.  Whenever I think of a book that I would like reading, I will search the internet for the digital version.   Free e books of course.  There are tons of websites that offer free ebooks.  My favourites are gigapedia and freebookspot.

There is also this text to speech feature in the Kindle for those who prefer to have the e books read to them.  I have never used this function though as I don't take audio books kindly.

With the Kindle, I can plug on the earphones and listen to songs while reading as it also comes with mp3 player.  The Kindle has speakers but for the benefit of other felllow patients in the ward, the earphones offers privacy and silence.  

When tired of reading, I switched to playing games that I have saved in the Kindle.   The Kindle 3 also comes with wifi and web browser for those internet surfing at the spur of the moment.  However, the hospital does not offer free wifi and I have my laptop and broadband internet with me anyway.

Mine is the Kindle 3 which has a black and white screen and keypads.  Amazon has since came up with the touch screen version of Kindle.  Its latest product, the tablet named Kindle Fire is set to be launched soon.  The Kindle Fire is an interesting gadget with just a fraction of the price of that of an I Pad or any other tablets in the market currently.  Perhaps I can consider getting the Kindle Fire after all.

Tuna Pizza

Making pizza has been a life long ambition of mine.  I said ambition as I have always like and tried to make pizza, but unfortunately, without any success.  With my sister being bitten by the cooking and baking bug lately, I am determined to pick up making pizza again.

Having all the ingredients ready at hand, I prepared the dough first.  For some unknown reason, my pizza dough turned out beautifully this time.  Not wanting to invest a lot in my first pizza, I just put in some tomato sauce, canned pineapples and tuna (in brine) and topped it with cheese.  My pizza dough is too much and I was able to make a 9" and a 13" pizzas with it.  Both pizzas turned out beautifully.  They looked so tempting that I have cut and taken a slice from the 9" pizza before realising that I have not taken any picture.

They taste good too!  My niece finished up the whole 9" pizza in one afternoon, all by herself! 



13" Tuna Pizza



9" Tuna Pizza

Needless to say, this will be the start of many many pizza making in the future!