one of those days....

else, i just eat EVERYTHING... and i don't know what i had eaten and why i ate it in the first place.

(well, actually, i do know WHY, but the joy of eating is no longer there)

i just hope the bloating feeling will dissipate soon.

i would very much like to LIKE my food. 

Desserts spelled backwards is?

just a short post on fooooooood.....

tell me, does that NOT make you want to salivate?

i proclaim that i aspire to bake this sumptuous cheesecake. i even printed the recipe from All Recipes.com. if you want to find the recipe, do write 'Chantal's New York Cheesecake' in the search box.

printing is one thing. actually making the cake is another. i shall endeavour to try soon. i feel the need... the need to create or craft something. perhaps this need will dissipate soon. else, i do not know how to stop the other need to design my boys' room. :)

(refer to previous post, if you must)

so enough narrative for now.  i shall leave you with the visual of an enticing new york cheesecake topped with strawberry jelly... oh yums!

then again, if i couldn't wait, i could always skip to Isetan to find a frozen one. :P

homely retreat

as i plough through another sickly day, trying to make sense of the tiredness, i came across this in my mailbox. 

it heartened me. the sheer visual of the beautiful room just made me (and my heart) smile.

Lou's jumping on her bed!

doesn't this make you want to ooh and aah?

i especially love the beads chandelier :)

as well as the accompanying story : a mother planned to redecorate her daughter's room with the sole goal of her sleeping in there more often and ended up being the winner of the first Washington Post Kid's Room Contest.

in gist, Krista Salmon, the mother, has been undergoing this 'Big Girl' project to make the room for her lil' girl, Anna Louise aka Lou more livable. something that both of them would be proud of.

(see the whole story here)

if you want more inspiration to do up your kids room, please go to Krista's personal blog called Kiki's List. the post on the revelation of Lou's room could be found here.

now.... what could i do to make my boys sleep in their own (non-existent) room?

hmmm... first off, need ze hubby to get cracking by inciting him with the idea of more privacy. :P

next up... i need to think of a palette for the room. Big Brother likes Purple... and lil brother likes... er... Pink. for now. hehehe.

Dont Fall For It! :)

AS PER USUAL, i do not know how to edit the image to make it fit the screen but i think you get the gist of the picture.

this is from Net-a-porter site. more specifically, the issue is on the Fall 2011 Must Haves or trends.

i especially love the lists on 2. A Shirt Story, 12. Fancy Pants 13. Arm Candy 15. Modern Maxi 19. Lace Is More and 21. High Drama.

since we dont have four seasons in Malaysia, i would advise that you follow the trend...with due caution. :) 

(i.e. parka, cape, fuzz are not applicable to us)

here's the link for your ease of browsing later. 

http://www.net-a-porter.com/theedit?cm_sp=homepage-_-edit-_-edit

another thankful post

i had drafted a post last Monday while waiting for my turn to see the doctor at the hospital cafeteria.

but something happened at home - something ghastly revolting between my maid and a stranger whom she let in - that the post had to be scrapped.

i then lost my appetite to write. 

i would not want to elaborate much in this portal, but suffice to say the maid hasn't confessed despite being caught red-handed by my neighbour and being confirmed by my (although incoherent) four-year-old son.

i don't want to rant more here. it would just start me on it again - when i am already starting to calm down. 

of course i've had sleepless nights, trying to find a solution, but now i am just thankful that my kids are at my sister's for the time being (with the maid in tow, regardless).

this is for temporary measure. i hate imposing on other people. i rather not depend on my in-laws but they seem to be the only ones available (from next week onwards) to oversee the ungrateful maid until we find another.

i would have kicked her out, but rationally, i couldn't. besides, my kids got on well with her. guess the false charms win them over.

so i was a sorry sight when i came to work today - after two days of medical leave - as i was obsessing over the fate of my kids. 

then after lunch, i bumped into a colleague, who always look fresh and cheery in the office pantry and i flat out asked her " how do you handle stress? " she was heavily pregnant and has been working late. 

she said she would not let stress get to her. she even wakes up at 4am to do work at home and continues to work at the office. i said " doesn't the fatigue gets to you? " she said it did, but she still would not let it get to her. she would take short naps when she could.

her positive attitude warmed me up all over. we're not the best of buddies but she cheered me up today. even with her physical constraints, her mental reserves were aplenty. 

she is in-charge of her life. i love that spirit. i want to inhale it and let it consume me. make me aglow with optimism.... and life. i thus decree that i secretly aspire to be the ever effervescent Anne of Green Gables. :P

scratch that. but the point is, when life gets you down, you need to remember that you still have the resilience within you to come back up.

you dont always have to be thankful by looking at what the others do not have, or those who have less than you; neverthless, you could be thankful by looking at other people who still have the courage and strength to take the bull by its horn, despite it steadily and surely charges towards you. 

MM 2, albeit belated

I promised to post about my MM on er, last Monday.

but alas, the tug 'o war of the small lappie was not mine to win.

(although i didnt even try to wrestle it from my beloved cutie pies... i'd only use it when the boys have had enough of it, which is rather rare because after one has his turn, the other would want his... the obvious solution is to get another laptop/netbook but that could wait)

anyways, i have had this draft for the last two days. i was thinking of something interesting to add in MM 2, but there was nothing much that caught my eye.

and then i received a mailer from Zara in my inbox (starring two cute kids, made up of a boy and a girl) and i was gob-smacked in love with those two pictures. then it struck me that i'd always love advertisements that feature kids in them.

yes i know it's not much of a Marvel to you but to have kids modelling is something of a marvel to me. to look effortlessly happy and oh-that-cute demeanour, after spending long adult working hours on the set, one has to wonder if it's inherent - as kids are still innocent and could easily be moulded to be awed with all things new - therefore, when we, prospective patrons, who look at their smiling, cheeky faces, we could not help but smile back.

and isn't that pretty much MARVELLOUS?

anyway, the mentioned Zara ads are the first two below.

I wonder what he was asked to look at to induce that melting smile. :) and he  reminded me of my second son.

effortlessly beautiful that you wonder how she would look like smiling. :)  plus... i dig that outfit!

these are GAP Casting Call winners (US) - i read that mixed kids with exotic looks have high chances of winning. so ... do you consider Javanese plus (white) Mamak (Indian Muslim) exotic? :P

i love the boy... he seemed to be having so much fun. i like the other ad  which i've seen at the store where he was furiously 'leaning' against three other girls - causing all of them to laugh.

nevertheless, as much as i love kids in ads, i wouldn't subject my boys to it. an opportunity did crop up, but i declined because i know my son was not ready.

maybe one day i'd change my mind. for now, i just want my kids to be kids. :)

Monday Marvel V2

I HAD THIS VISION OF HAVING A MONDAY MARVEL (which will be shortened to MM, from this post on) ON A WEEKLY BASIS.

but then, i knew it would not happen. so i bargained with myself. bi-weekly should be just nice - not too desperately early, not too obviously late. two weeks after the  first MM i still did not and could not find the time to do it. which i blamed on the festive season - with it being Hari Raya still.

so Syawal has passed us by and i still don't know what to write.

MM is supposed to be about finding something quirky and/or something so out of this world (like the urm, highly unrealistic Miu Miu shoes/ boots kinda contraption) and share with your my ever silent readers. :P

basically, i haven't gotten the time to browse online to find anything which is worth sharing.

anyhow, i promise to do so today and i will find time to post it... just hope i would not fall asleep before the deed is made. :D

stay tune, lovelies.