Ballet skirts

Oh finally! Last couple of days have been in hibernation working on princess' ballet skirt. Made 2 in the end as 1st one didn't turn out too well. Was way too small for her. But anyway worked on it whole of yesterday and it's completed. She was thrilled when she saw it after coming home from a playdate (yup, had to get rid of her while I concentrated on the task). Well, here you go Sam, the photos you asked for, and SS, a little skirt for Anna. Will take a break before attempting a tutu! I've no confidence in that one. Don't even have an idea what to do. Haha. Just working out how to put this skirt together already exhausted me mentally as I've not done it before. I have to say the overall result was alright. It could have been better but have learnt from it and hope if I ever attempt another, would have learnt from the mistakes.

Foodies Paradise

Having made some mistakes on the first piece of fabric I purchased, well, I still managed to salvage it and made a little skirt out of it, I decided to go to Arab Street to hunt for similar type fabrics and ended up with tulle and lots of food stuff. Haha. Didn't manage to find what I was looking for there though. Fortunately it wasn't a wasted trip and I ended up going to Beach Road and having the famous fish bee hoon soup (directly opposite The Concourse), and also to Beach Road Hawker Centre to buy some famous Belgian waffles. I'd read so much about it in the papers and on other blogs. Unfortunately I was there an hour early and they didn't start selling them till 11.30am. So I ended up with a bowl of Ah Balling. I love the black sesame ones and also tried the yam ones. I had them with ginger soup. It was really nice. Next stop was another well-known shop which sells traditional Chinese biscuits - Thye Hong I think it's called. So bought some of the delicious biscuits of my childhood and the pong pnia. This is for you sis. I know you love them. Will get them when you are back for Christmas.

Catching up

Met Sam and Hani this morning and had breakfast at Toast Box. Since Hani's leaving to the States soon, she wanted something local which she'll miss when she goes there. Sob sob, another friend leaving us :( Well, after breakfast went to Spotlight, Sam's and my favourite place, to look for fabrics. Found a gorgeous organza type fabric with lovely ballet slippers printed on it. Actually princess spied them. Had to get it and decided to sew her a skirt for ballet. Was very excited as I need to be motivated to sew and this did it for me. It's been a long time, at least a year if not longer, that I've taken the sewing machine out. I'm not into sewing that much unlike Sam.

Potter-mania

Finally the time has come for the much-awaited final book of the Harry Potter series - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I can't say I'm a fan but I have read the 6 books before this one, so giving in to the hype and publicity, I decided to get a copy of it. But it's really ex here. I paid $48.05 after a 10% discount whereas my sis only paid A$29.95 in Perth. Hmm!!! Plus she got a free beanie Hedwig, how cute. Well anyway, much of my evenings will be taken up with reading it, as day times are for princess especially if she's not in school. Haven't sent her to school last couple of days as there are cases of HFMD. Sigh. It's really not fair to her to miss school but we'd rather play it safe. No point subjecting the poor child to the disease.

So while we were at Plaza Singapura yesterday to have lunch at our favourite Jap restaurant, Ichiban Sushi, I dropped in at Daiso and picked up little decorations to beautify princess' meals. There were lots of cute stuff and I had to stop myself. Bought little toothpicks, forks, food servers etc. I love Daiso for having come to Singapore and bringing to us affordable Japanese knick knacks.

Got these little straws in Perth. The kids simply love them! They are flavoured with chocolate, strawberry and cookies and cream. The name is Sipahh and when you order a kids' meal in McDonald's they serve them with milk. Princess loves them and so do her friends who got them as gifts. Will need to replenish them soon as they are quickly disappearing from my stash. Only thing is they contain up to half a teaspoon of sugar in each straw so that's a minus point for me.

Made french toast for breakfast on Saturday and cut them into little shapes. I like to do shapes
with sandwiches too and often do them when there's a party.

Dinner time

I discovered these little sushi moulds in NTUC (AMK Hub) and thought they'd be cute for little princess' meals. I tried them last night and she was delighted. Also bought these Jap rice seasoning satchets in Meidiya I think. A friend introduced them to me but I find a little goes a long way as a single satchet contains a lot. I have used them to make the mouths for the faces and also as a little decoration for this dish. But you can just add them to a bowl of rice for flavour.

My Little Helper

Princess loves to help me around the house. Sometimes she'll put the
laundry on the line, or else vacuum or mop the floor. Today she decided
to wash vegetables. I started this game with her a few months' back and
she loves it although I only allow it when we have lots of time to spare
and I'm not in a hurry. I find, in a way, it also encourages her to eat her
veggy. Like I've read before, if you get kids to help you prepare a meal,
they tend to be more interested in eating the stuff they prepare. In any
case, she's really good with veg now, not just because she helps to wash
them, but more that she's more grown up now. I have no problems with
feeding her veg which is great. Fruits are her first love so I have no problem there.

Instant meal

My princess is a true angel. She eats almost anything I put before her. But I thought, why not make the food look more interesting. So I recently started these 'pretty meals' as she calls them. Unfortunately I was lazy this particular day so just made do with instant noodles and added fruits and veg with a little treat after. She finished all that was presented to her, even the celery sticks which I had simply parboiled. Wow! She started asking for celery after watching the kids programme 'Wonder Pets'. I thought it was just a novelty as the wonder pets love eating celery & they mention it all the time. I was so proud of her, she finished every stick of it!

Her first pretty meal

This was my first attempt at making little princess her 'pretty meal'. It's just a matter of arranging the food neatly on a plate, complete with little carrot eyes and a piece of fruit or two but she absolutely loved it. I also included a little treat of chocolate.

Donuts, donuts, and more donuts

Well, I wonder what the hype is all about. Many times I have passed by the Donut Factory in Raffles City but each time I never bother to queue up as I think it's a waste of my precious time. There was an article in the Straits Times a few weeks' back about having done a taste test of the different shops offering this very 'hot' snack of the moment. Summer House was top of the list with Donut Factory. Heard from a source that the Burlington Square outlet used to have loads of stock till the article came out and they were sold out in a matter of hours. Therefore, I happened to be in AMK Hub today and saw that they had an outlet there. Surprise, surprise, there was no queue!!! Hmm...how can that be? So well, decided to buy a pack of 6 as you are entitled to $1 off but most importantly I could get a box for it. Less than that they put them in paper bags.

Decided to buy the plain chocolate frosting, cookies and cream, and one with a filling as hubby likes those (can't remember what jam it was), and one with rainbow sprinkles for princess (which is missing from the box as she had gobbled it down the minute I bought it).

Well, in true honesty, I thought it was so-so. For plain chocolate frosting I still prefer the ones in Carrefour (no queuing involved). I find the dough really soft and the chocolate they use seem to be of a higher quality. The cookies and cream was a tad too sweet for my liking.