Her Royal Highness

Relocation

2009-10-06T22:10:00.002+08:00

Nope, it's not me. Just my blog.

I've decided to start afresh with a brand new blog. One of the reasons being I've reached the limit to upload my piccies on this address.

~~Go check out www.sugarlilies2.blogspot.com~~

Love you all!

Latest update (as of 16 Jan 2010): Please check out www.carriemcgorgeous.blogspot.com

xoxo~

Saree making

2009-09-26T23:00:00.005+08:00

Alice's wedding is less than 2 months away. The 3 of us bridesmaids have to get our saree blouses tailor-made soon to avoid the pre-deepavali rush at the seamstress.

Since Christine, Sue-Ann and I have been travelling at various times, this is the only weekend where we can get our acts together.

We decided to yumcha at this nice HK dimsum place in DJ (i can never remember the name as it's very Chinese - but it's super easy to locate cos it's the corner shop, same row as Maybank).

After a hearty yumcha (coupled with loads of eggs tarts), we were ready to go check out this tailor recommended by Sue-Ann's friend.

We took a while trying to decide on a design we like and we had to communicate with our friendly tailor, Muthu what exactly we wanted. We also sought his professional advice on whether the material will suit what we had in mind.

I was the first to make up my mind cos I've done some research online and i sort of had an idea what i wanted. Anyway, there's no pix of me as my right eye was slightly swollen cos i woke up with a sty this morning. Hope it'll subside soon :(

Then it was Sue-Ann's turn to take her measurements.

Christine couldn't make up her mind whether to make a halter neck or a blouse with sleeves.

See? I told you Muthu is friendly. Look at that smile.

Sarees in different shades of pink

~*~*~*saree blouse designs*~*~*~

source: internet

These are some of the designs i found from the internet. Obviously, some were more sexy and daring than others..

I told Muthu I wanted to make this blouse design. I like how the cap sleeves looked, but I couldn't decide whether I should have the back hooked (like the cream blouse [picture below this picture]) or just have it tied like this blouse below. In the end, I decided to have it tied cos I already have 2 very traditional saree blouses like the cream one below.

Fingers crossed that the embellishment/beadings on my material will turn out okay on the sleeves.

Ooh..sexy back

Aathe Textiles
(2 shops' away from Sri Paandi)
43C, Jalan 11/4,
Petaling Jaya.
Tel:03-7960 0219

We're pretty excited about getting together next month to collect the blouses already :p

My favourite things..Part 1

2009-09-24T23:44:00.011+08:00

McPingu and I both love to eat. I guess it's apparent from the piccies we took together. Well, for one most of them were food-related. :P Not that i minded at all..

Let's start from our 1st date..

We went to Hajime for Japanese ryori.

Camwhoring while waiting for our food to be served.

Hotate ninniku

We love love the scallops. They were fat and juicy and what's more..it was value for money at RM16 per plate.

We ordered 2 types of hotate (scallops) - hotate ninniku and hotate avocado - as i couldn't decide which one. I wasn't too impressed with the hotate avocado though (maybe it was because it was fried with garlic and i wasn't too keen with the garlicky aftertaste). It was maa maa desu (so so only).

Black spider maki and california cheese maki. Oishi desu ne!

Grilled wagyu beef

We were a tad bit disappointed with the foie gras maki. It was supposed to be a special maki but somehow the taste of the foie gras was overwhelmed by the other condiments. Pingu then told me he'd bring me to this French restaurant in Manila for 'to-die-for' foie gras. :)

Grilled saba. Pingu loves this fishy dish. Must be a penguin thing :P

Kurogama (black sesame) ice cream and pumpkin pudding

The dinner was pure decadent....Pure pure guilty pleasure :P

~*~*~*~*One week later....*~*~*~*~

I went to Manila during the Merdeka weekend. Yups, those of us having long distance relationships make the most of each and every long weekend we can get.

Prior to flying, I baked some cream puffs to bring over as a surprise for Pingu.

This is my very first attempt at baking cream puffs. Was kinda nervous they wouldn't turn out nicely.

Piped a couple of heart-shaped ones too as I was feeling kinda ~~mengada~~ creative :P

My very first batch of cream puffs. Not too bad eh?

*note to self: must brush tips to avoiding burning them.

~*~*~*Manila - Day 1*~*~*~

Bonifacio High Street

We had designer burgers at Brother's for lunch.

Love the juicilicious beef patty.

Pay close attention to the building behind me..

I stumbled upon Nuffnang's PH office :p Can you spot the Nuffnang logo?

It's the weekend, and you can see lots of ppl hanging out at High Street lepakking. Oh, I forgot, they have a term for it, it's widely known as 'Malling'.

At night, this is like the place for dog owners alike to bring their four-legged best friends out for a walk. I love it here.

Hmm..i wonder how I'm gonna be able to bring my 4 shihtzus out to play.. :P

Can anyone tell me what kinda orchids these are? These looked unreal :)

Bonifacio High St is like 5 minutes walk from Pingu's place. I love how convenient his pad is to most of the lovely hang out places. :)

Oh, have i told you that filipino's love to camwhore too? They do it everywhere and anywhere...anytime. When I arrived, I saw 2 pinoys camwhoring in the restroom at the airport upon arrival. Mind you, it was 5am at the time.

Next stop...Greenbelt

I've actually been to Greenbelt before. I was in Manila for a 2-week student exchange programme when I was 16. The programme was sponsored by both Rotary Club PJ and Rotary Club Makati West. Me and 4 other fellow Interactors had a swell time when we were here immersing in the culture and were being pampered like crazy by our gracious host parents.

Anyway, back to Greenbelt. The Greenbelt I went to at the time, was probably Greenbelt 1 and 2. They have now extended up to Greenbelt 5. So this place is huge now.

McPingu with his McGorgeous @ one of the more scenic walkways around Greenbelt.

Thought this was quite a nice picture of two girls prancing around playing to their hearts' content, without a care in the world. Their heads were bopping up and down and their hair were flying everywhere. So cute. :)

What a lovely gal. And she camwhored for me. awwwww.. :)

There's a lovely chapel in Greenbelt. It was time for mass and the chapel was overflowing with people. So, we hung out by the pond outside the chapel and I couldn't resist taking a picture of this lovely pair of ducks. They looked so in lurve, didn't they? (or issit just me?)

Dinner at this 'atas' French restaurant, Je Suis Gourmand

This is the place Pingu was raving about. The place for the to-die-for foie gras. Je Suis Gourmand is known for its delicious French cuisine and generous serving. Personally, i think each serving was big enough for more than 1 person.

I love how this place has an intimate setting and only has few tables inside and some outside (the smoking section). We were seated in a cosy corner that was not cosy enough to not hear what the other patrons were saying. Yeah i know, what an oxymoron. :P

This was taken using my lousy Casio Exilim

And this..using his canggih Canon SLR (fyi, i didn't do any photoshop here..mainly cos i dunno how)

Watch me operate his SLR. Dun play play :p

True to his words, this pan seared foie gras served on a bed of salad with reduced honey balsamic sauce was awesome! We ordered a serving to share and this was only my portion. Generous rite? Mmm..i am drooling again. I so miss this...

I had the cream based tomato shitake mushroom soup whereas Pingu had the white fish soup.

I wished I didn't order the soup though, cos i was stuffed after that. I couldn't eat when my main arrived.

Do penguins eat steak? I know one who does :P

My main. The prawns were perfect - so darn springy and chewy and ooh..let's not even get me started on the scallops. Yumm..

Only thing was, the pesto + buttery sauce made it very 'jelak-fying', i couldnt even finish a quarter of it.

For desserts, we had souffle with dark chocolate & grand marnier sauce.

I know i know, i told you i was stuffed, but i've got a totally different stomach for desserts :p. The souffle was superb i tell ya!

Je Suis Gourmand
G/F, Net One Center, Bonifacio Global City
Taguig City, Metro Manila
(02) 815-8801

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I shall post more later. Am having a tough time as blogger is pretty unstable/wonky at the moment. Just gonna post this and resume later. Till then take care, and stay tuned.

Happy weekend everyone! Muakisses ;)

xoxo
McGorgeous

I am McGorgeous

2009-08-24T20:25:00.004+08:00

Before we started going out together, we were just chatting as two normal friends. And he started calling me 'gorgeous' one fine morning.

Yups, he sent me a text, something along the line of "Good morning gorgeous! Have an awesome day!".

And that's how he started calling me gorgeous and me, pingu. He uses the pingu as his msn avatar you see.

Digress a bit...I love love waking up to his sweet messages. I reckon it's a fantastic way to start an otherwise dull day. Yups, i am not a morning person at all.

.
.

So last week, we were both scrolling through his iPhone looking at the pix we took together, played some games together - which i lost :p, and we had nothing better to do than to rate some of the pick up lines from one those applications on his phone.

Well, most were really cheesy so to speak. But i found one which really caught my attention..

Carrie: Haha..so lame la the pick up line. Next.

Pingu: yeah, won't work.

Carrie: Oh..this one's quite cute. "If you were the new burger at McDonald's you would be the McGorgeous." Hun, I wanna be McGorgeous la! hehehe.

Pingu: You are McGorgeous.

Carrie: And you can be McPingu la then :P.

So yeah, I am McGorgeous and I read mags for a living. How do you do?

This blog is not dead...

2009-08-18T08:09:00.004+08:00

Oh well, at least not yet... :P

Just wanted you to know that I'm alive and well. Just a tad too busy with the new job and the new beau.

I love love love the feeling of being in lurve.... Fyi, I am still floating on cloud 9 at the moment and I'm savouring every minute of it.

Yup, for those of you who think that u might get goosebumps all over cos i so sound disgustingly in love - and that you find it offensive - well, i guess you should stay away from my blog for a while cos i'm gonna be like this for some time i reckon :p. And yes, i'll still luv you. ;)

Latest update: He's gonna be coming back over the weekend....and I'm so excited.

*counting the days*

luv

Carrie

Brand new start

2009-08-03T20:27:00.003+08:00

I guess it's apparent to most ppl how much i love fashion. Well, i got lucky and found myself a PR job in a local fashion house which carries an impressive range of international labels. :)

Today's my first day at work and it was made sweeter when i received a beautiful bouquet sent by Pingu.

The thing is, I was totally clueless about this (you know how we gals will always have an inkling about surprises when our beaus wanna do something special for us?). Well, i was totally caught off guard.

FYi, we're having a long distance r/ship at the moment. He's working in the Philippines, and me here in Msia. So when he asked for my new company's name and where it will be, i happily gave those information away without being aware of his intention.

What a sweet way to mark the beginning of a new career :)

*busy sprinkling love dusts everywhere*

xoxo

Deliriously so

2009-07-27T18:15:00.005+08:00

i guess the fact that i've been missing in action for a while now is because i've been busy.

Yes, i've been busy burying myself in happiness.

In fact, i've been deliriously happy.

You know those feelings.....chatting on the phone for hours, butterflies in the stomach, having a silly grin plastered on my face wherever i go, feeling extremely awesome, etc...gosh, i feel like a teenager all over again, or something to that extent. :p

Sounds like i'm falling in love eh?

Oh well, i'm not gonna reveal too much.

I'm not gonna say his name even, well, let's just call him 'Pingu' <--that's our lil secret. :)

This is a cute lil pingu alrite ;)

Busy sprinkling some love around here.

xoxo

Carrie

Random wishlist

2009-07-09T13:29:00.000+08:00

I've made a resolution to spend less, save up and clear the credit card bills. Thanks to Carmen for the motivation. :)

Therefore, I'm currently sticking to a shopping budget. Hence, I'm not allowing myself to shop impulsively anymore. *sigh*

I was out the other day and somehow got sucked into trying some star products at Benefit's counter. Oh gosh, unless you have a heart of steel, do not, i repeat, do not go near the counter. There's bound to be something to buy.

This is what I got...Dr. feelgood

In fact, i wanted to get the other 2 items as well. But my conscience got the better of me. Thank goodness or else the guilt trip would've be worse. :P

Gotta be... Gotta be..gotta be..disciplined.

dr. feelgood
Like its name, this VitC packed balm gives the complexion an even coverage with a feel-good finish - hello, the skin dr is here to make house calls! ;p
It mattifies and reduces shine, leaving skin silky to the touch. I love its lightweight texture.

Dr. feelgood can be worn alone, under or on top of makeup. Perfect for mid-day touch-ups. Oooh..what's more this small little balm magically reduces the appearance of fine lines and pores. Someone should have created this much earlier. :)

Okay, that one's done.
These are the 2 items that i've got on my wishlist.

#1 Posietint
What it is? It's a poppy-pink tinted lip & cheek stain.
Why i heart it? The colour looks fantastic on my cheek, giving it such a natural long lasting glow. And there's no touch-up required.
Con: It's a tad more pricey than the Paul & Joe ones I'm using. At RM145, I can almost get 2 blushers from Paul & Joe (approx. RM90 each).

some kind-a gorgeous
This foundation faker is perfect in every way! There's no more hassle to find a shade that matches your skin tone anymore, this wonderful product does it all for you. The translucent shade miraculously blends into your skin tone, giving a natural and even finishing.

I love how the oil-free, lightweight texture makes me feel and look oh-so-gorgeous. :)

If you havent already checked out Benefit, pls do. The stuff are fantastic :)

Today...I said 'thank you'

2009-07-02T20:35:00.004+08:00

I never realised there are so many things I've taken for granted.

I never realised how blessed I am to have such loving parents.

I never realised at all.....

Yups, all these came to mind when I was having a shower just now. The conversation I had with a new staff during lunch came flashing in my head. She's a very nice girl who's just joined the company for a couple of weeks. You know the type - fresh grad, very sweet and timid.

Over lunch, she asked me all sorts of questions about my experiences and she was interested to pick up skills like networking, pr, public speaking, etc. She wanted to build up her confidence during this period.

Then it came to a part where she asked what my hobbies are. She also asked me if i played the piano. When i said 'yes', she got all excited and said, "Oh..then i'd love to go your house. I like pianos and i've always envied ppl who can play piano."

My reply was simple, "Oh, then don't you wanna learn?". And she said, "My mother never allowed us to learn".

For a while, I couldn't register that statement. It never occured to me that there are parents out there who do not allow their children to learn things they are interested in. And I realised how lucky i was.

When I was a kid, I never liked going for piano lessons, mainly because my teacher used to hit my hand with a ruler if I didn't cut my nails. I hated the constant drilling before a piano exam. I guess i hated the hours i had to spend practising and practising my pieces.

So, there was a time when dad and mum told me I could stop after sitting for my grade 1 theory and practical exams. And I was so thrilled.

Next thing I knew, I scored full marks for both exams. From then on, they managed to coax me into continuing. Believe me, I felt as if i was conned into it.

Now that I look back, I'm so glad they insisted on me continuing. I cannot imagine not having the skills to play songs i like when i feel like releasing my stress after a tiring day at work. I cannot imagine not being able to have my very own private time stroking the keys on my piano, singing my heart out.

I felt bad for thinking my parents forced me into something i didn't like at the time.

During dinner with dad last night, I said thank you to him. He was surprised of course, and asked me why. I told him I'm thankful that he's always been so supportive and liberal in allowing us to do the things we like. I then told him about my colleague. He in return, gave me a warm smile which melted my heart.

It feels so good to express my feelings to him. Unfortunately in our conservative Asian culture, it's not everyday that we have heart-to-heart talks with our parents and tell them we love them. But i believe it can be done if we let down our emotional barriers. :)

So, have you told your loved ones how you feel today?

Sangkaya Sunday!

2009-06-28T23:50:00.000+08:00

I love to chill on Sunday. :)

I'm happy to say that i managed to get quite a lot of things done today.

Lemme see....besides having spring cleaned my room, i managed to try out this recipe for my fave Thai dessert - Sangkaya.

For those of you who're not familiar, sangkaya is in actual fact coconut egg custard.

My sunday sweet ;)
Mum and dad like the sangkaya too.

I saved so much. The ones selling here cost RM3.6 per piece. We can practically eat our hearts out. :P

I've googled around for a few recipes and I came up with my own.

~*~*~*Sangkaya recipe*~*~*~

Ingredients

1 cup coconut cream - i used reduced fat coconut milk
3/4 to 1 cup gula melaka (palm sugar)

5 eggs

1 pandan leave

1 small pumpkin (about 6 inches in diameter and 5 inches in height)

Method

1) Slice off the top of the pumpkin. Remove the seeds and most of the pulp.

2) Cut the pandan leave into small pieces, put into blender with about half cup water, blend well. Then squeeze blended pandan leaves and strain pandan juice through a sieve cloth.
3) Heat the coconut milk and palm sugar in a pot just enough to dissolve the sugar, creating a smooth mixture. Allow to cool to room temperature.

4) Beat the eggs. Mix with the cooled, sweetened coconut cream.

5) Add 3 tablespoons of pandan leave juice.

6) Strain mixture through a sieve cloth. Spoon out any bubbles that may have formed over the top.

7) Pour mixture into the hollowed out pumpkin. Steam over medium heat until custard is set. This will take approximately 1 hour, depending on the size and thickeness of the pumpkin. Let cool.

8) Slice the pumpkin into wedges as you would a cake. Store the rest in the fridge.

Bon appetit!

Standout Party with Nuffnang and Tiger ~ my version

2009-06-21T01:28:00.017+08:00

Here's the much delayed blog post..
As usual, i am fashionably late in submitting the entry. :p

This is what i wore to the party. Lots of bloggers i met that night asked where i rented my costume. Hehe..i told them these belong to me as i do perform belly dancing sometimes. I borrowed the orange top from my instructor, Brancy.

Sis dressed up as an angel. Love her wings.

The limited edition bottle designs. Gotta collect them all!
What a fresh facelift for Tiger beer. :)

It was my very 1st nuffnang get-together event.

And we met lotsa interesting bloggers there.

This bunch dressed up as Spartans. Talk about the power of numbers!

Benard the cow was our constant makan and drinking kaki that night. A really cool guy.

Candid back picture

The cash-rich cow (yeah, he collected heaps of nuffie dollars) who loves a good spanking.

The two angels.

Kenny Sia dressed as Susan Boyle. Trust him to come up with something so funny and outta the box.

We were all given Nuffie dollars of about $20 each. To earn more dollars, we had to ~~cheat~~ win them from other bloggers via activities like arm wrestling, one-two-juice, etc.

We could then use the nuffie dollars we've earned to buy slaves from the auction.

With PinkPorkChop the most outstandingly dressed blogger that night. I tell ya, she had a tough time moving around the crowded place.

Nihonjin and Superman.

I was nominated to go on stage to vie for the Standout Queen title. In total, there were 3 gals and 3 guys on stage. Jojo Struys and Liang were the fabulous hosts that nite.

The nominees..

Cleopatra, Joseph Scissorhand, Carrie the belly dancer, Pinkporkchop the Gungho Queen.

MIA - Benard the cow, and Kenny Sia as British's Got Talent's most outstanding performer Susan Boy(le).

All nominees were asked to do something to validate why they deserve the 'Standout' title. Well, since i was dressed as a belly dancer...i did what i do best. :)

Kenny was such a good sport. ~~Molested him~~ Did a couple of body rolls with him while dancing. LOL!

Soon, it was Kenny's turn to perform. He wanted to sing, but the crowd wanted him to flash. And..he did! Talk about having balls man!

The finalists with our fantabulous hosts - Jojo and Liang.

We were all so glad that our turns to perform's over. Thanks to Benard and Joseph for keeping me entertained on stage. Boy, I was so nervous.

While waiting for the results...
We camshored a lil more..

Standout King title goes to Joseph Scissorhand for his funky popping/break dance. He won a Xbox.

Standout Queen goes to Pinkporkchop who did a bridge. She won a pink Coach bag.

The rest of us won the 'Pacifier sucker' award which includes a pacifier (of cos!), mini bolster and RM100 Topshop voucher.

Timothy, co-founder of Nuffnand presenting me the 'Pacifier sucker' award. I ditched the pacifier and only posed with the bolster.

Woohoo...I've been getting Topshop/DNP vouchers almost every month. Life's good. :)

On our way out, we bumped into Ringo/Cheesie. She's really nice and interesting in person.

Another picture moment with Jojo Struys.

Thanks to Nuffnang and Tiger for organising such an Outstanding partaaayyyy!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Many asked me if i've used the voucher.

Indeed i have. Instead of getting something from Topshop this time (i couldn't find anything i like as i've bought the ones i like already), i bought this Coral frill tea dress from Dorothy Perkins.

Standout with Nuffnang and Tiger

2009-06-16T21:15:00.004+08:00

What can I say?

The party was fantastic what with endless flow of Tiger beer, good fun, and meeting heaps of interesting bloggers out there.

Gomenasai as I havent the time to blog much about it... (yups, i haven't compiled those piccies yet).

However, do check out this write up in The Star

Oooh..also, check out Kenny Sia's Susan Boy post.

Sequel coming up pretty soon.

Saree shopping

2009-06-08T21:00:00.010+08:00

Last weekend was pretty eventful.

Sue-Ann and I went with Alice and Suren to Klang to shop for our sarees. Yups, Alice and Suren will be tying the knot this November and we'll be Alice's bridal entourage (MIA - Christine and Reena). Christine and Reena could not make it at the last minute, if not I'm sure it'll be even more fun.

Alice's theme is pink. Easy for me as i lup pink colour :p but not for Sue-Ann as she's never owned anything wearable in pink before.

We have determined that we wanted chiffon material (so that got silk and other materials outta the way, which was a great relief). The deal was we could either go for the same shade of pink in the same design, or same shade of pink in different designs, or go for different shades of pink in the same design.

I never thought choosing a saree can be so challenging.

For one, the colour which suited me didn't suit Sue-Ann's complexion. So, the obvious solution was to choose a colour which matches each of our skin tone.

This is the very first saree I chose. The colour actually looked heaps better and it looked amazing on me (Ok, excuse that retarded expression i had).

I love love the embroidery design on the saree. And the colour..it was the only piece with this exact pink.

The price is also very 'beautiful' actually..it costs RM983 before we started bargaining.

After bargaining with the boss (Suren's mum knows the guy), it went down to RM355. Which was out of our budget).

I think this piece is RM8xx before discount. But the girls reckoned the colour of the 1st saree looked nicer on me.

Sue-Ann went for a lighter shade of pink. But somehow this colour didn't 'wow' us. We suggested a sweeter, lighter pink.

This one is a lil too plain, the design was very bare.

I searched high and low at another range (which costs around RM3xx) for the same shade of pink as the first one..but to no avail.

This one I'm draping on came close...and I love the design. And Sue finally found a shade which she likes.

So ta-dah! Presenting our sarees.

Each costs around RM383 before discount. After much haggling, we got it down to RM120 each.

Btw, my saree was very roughly tied, the foldings were actually falling off cos i was actually moving about a bit.

Next, we went hunting for matching accessories.

Now, the only thing that's left is to find a good tailor to make our saree blouses.

While walking along the street, I found 2 saree blouse designs i quite fancy.

We had lunch closed to 3pm.

Suren brought us to a decent banana leaf eatery. Mmmm..

Look, it's served in real banana leaf, not those plastic-ky banana leaf plate you get in PJ.

Thanks to the couple for bringing us to Klang. :)

All in, the outing was pretty short as I had to rush home by 5pm to prepare myself for Nuffnang and Tiger's Standout partay!

There's definitely gonna be part 2 for our saree shopping as we'll be going with Christine again..

Here's a sneak preview of what happened ;)

I was shortlisted to go on stage for the 'Standout Queen' title. Yups, the guy in the orange hawaiian nightie is Kenny Sia aka Susan Boyle. He was nominated for the 'Standout King' title.

All 6 nominees with Jojo Struys and Liang our hosts for the night.

I need to grab the pix of others as I didn't take any piccies that night.

So, stay tuned to find out who won. :)

I'm going to StandOut with Tiger and Nuffnang!

2009-06-05T07:30:00.002+08:00

Woot!

I've been informed that I was shortlisted to attend the above function. Ooh lala!

But I won't be going with Kel though. He's a lil tied up at the moment. And also shy about attending such a 'blogger explosion' event. :p Okayla Kel, for your sake, I'm just gonna tell the rest that it's because you wanted to give the pass to my sis to attend la...and because you couldn't find your Bruce Lee costume. :p

So, I'll be going with my sis, Claudine. :)

My dilemma on the day I received the invite was, 'what to wear' (yeah, so what's new?). The theme is to basically where anything that makes you standout. Tough one i think.

No worries though, I've finally got that sorted out 2 nites ago. But i'm NOT telling you about it...yet.

So...Stay tuned.

Btw, the event is tomorrow, at Plaza TTDI, HQNine. I'm not sure if you could crash the partayyy.. ;) *hint hint*

I’m a Standout in Life!

2009-05-19T11:49:00.011+08:00

There’s this party organised by Nuffnang which I’m really keen on attending.

What is it?
It’s the ultimate Standout With Tiger & Nuffnang Party, a place where outstanding people get together to celebrate their uniqueness. Yups, party invites are only given to invited bloggers (limited to the 1st 100 entries) who are outstanding in their own ways. In order to get the invites, bloggers will have to blog about just how outstanding they are.

So….where shall I start?
What’s so outstanding about me that I can blog about?
ERm….can I lick my own elbow? Nope.
Can I do a split in the air while eating a packet of Chipsters? Hell No.

At the risk of sounding like I’m blowing my own horns, I decided to pick the brains of my friends to see what they have to say about me.

These are some of their feedback:

1) I’ve had no basic dance training, but I can dance pretty well. I do hiphop, belly dance and latin dance.

~*~*Msn conversation with Kel*~*~

Carrie says: Wei kel.. wat makes me outstanding?
₪ says: your personality
Carrie says: I need to write a post to win an entry for this tiger/nuffnang event. U gotta be more specific la..Stuff like i can lick my elbow…some kinda talent
₪ says: Hahah. u can dance like a princess and dine like a queen
Carrie says: Hahaha. thanks..dance like a princess? doesnt sound good eh?
₪ says: erm dance like a fox? keke
Carrie says: hahahahaha siaoness
₪ says: what event is it?
Carrie says: it's a nuffnang + tiger event.. go to www.nuffnang.com.my/standout
check it out
₪ says: omg blogger explosion
Carrie says: hahaha. yeah, wanna go or not? but its by invite only la
₪ says: i got no blog
Carrie says: i will get 2 tix mah. if i get the invites u can come wif me la. dat is if my entry jadi la

Took this during my very first belly dance performance for Celebrity Fitness Bangsar's 2nd anniversary party.

With my favourite dance instructor Tomas Mendez during our Halloween themed dance party.

I was dressed as the Corpse Bride.

The entire class enjoyed a fantastic ghoulish choreograph by Tomas and Baby G. Posing after the dance.

2) I am creative, and love to make things beautiful. Ahhh..it seems I am comfortable in my own skin too.

This is what my best bud, C* said,
"Your creativity, Ven (btw, Ven is my Chinese name). That's really outstanding. Whether it's a sense of style, eagerness to always make everything beautiful....Besides, you have the confidence to be who you are, are comfortable in the limelight. It takes someone who is really creative and confident to do that. Not any tom, dick or harry would be able to pull it off. "

The very first batch of cupcakes I baked and decorated. These are Xmas tree cupcakes which I made for my colleagues during Xmas.

I designed these boxes for ease of transportation and to avoid smudging my labour of love.

I love performing. In fact, I performed or somehow get dragged on stage every single year during company functions.

I was dressed as a modern Snow White for my group's act last year. We won the 2nd prize.

Snow White and the wicked witch.

Dancing with the seven dwarfs..all taller than me! How ironic! :P

3) I’m a risk taker, who’s not afraid to follow my instincts.

C* reminded me of what I’ve done a couple of years back. I actually left my comfort zone of working in the corporate world to go into the fashion/retail industry. I took a huge paycut as my experience in the high-end fashion industry was not sufficient enough. Also, I had to adapt to the long hours at the shop (the first few months was mainly operation work for me at the outlets eventhough I was recruited to be in Management and doing the buying of the clothings in France). It was hell working 10am – 10opm, made worse with no internet access - I was having msn withdrawal :p.

According to C*, it was something that most of us at that age would not do – switch industry, and/or have a drastic change in job. Well, I’m no longer in the fashion retail line and I’m now back to where I belong. However, I’ve started my own online fashion blog, which keeps my passion for fashion alive.

4) I'm known as 'The girl with 4 cute shihtzus'
Enough said about my love for animals. How many girls you know have 4 shihtzus? Now, that's quite outstanding eh?

With Cocoa Chanel - my very first doggie. To tell you the truth, I was really afraid of dogs before getting her.

With Babelicious aka Bebe aka CJay

The 4 monsters at home really light up my life.

Well, let's hope that I'm still eligible to get my hands on the event tix.

Anyway, here are the details of the event:
Date: 6 June 2009 (Saturday)
Time: 7pm till late
Venue: HQnine, Plaza TTDI
Dresscode: Standout

My birthday 2009

2009-04-30T23:40:00.000+08:00

As soon as the clock strikes 12am...

My family 'surprised' me with a birthday cake and song..

18th April, 12am

Bro wasn't able to celebrate with us as he had to entertain his bosses and clients.
Look at my doggies, all so eager to wish mummy 'happy birthday'.

Or were they more eager to eat the cake? :P

18th April, 7pm

Sis and i camwhored a bit while waiting for Chef to pick me up for dinner.

Chef and I had dinner @ Rakuzen, Plaza Damas.

Had my all time fave Chirashi sushi bento

Tempura and caterpillar roll

Sorry, I'm not posting any pix of Chef and I on that night. We didn't look good as we ended our relationship there and then. Dun ask me why...But no worries, I'm okay and we're still friends. Figure it's heaps better that way.

19th April, Sunday

My cheemuis and I celebrated my birthday @ our fave porky-dining place -Elcerdo.

Yups, this is the 3rd time we're celebrating there. Guess we're all porkaholics. :p

I'm so glad i had the girls to accompany that day...there's no other place i'd rather be than to nurse my wounds with my girlfriends. Surprisingly though, I was completely okay. As I've told them many times, I have a feeling i was over him weeks ago..Perhaps, I've really cried it all out that there's no more tears.

Again Werner looks different this time.

The creamy soup with bacon bits. Yumm..

Jamón Serrano

My fave crispy pork belly with lentil. MMmMMMmm..
The bomb the bomb!

This is a special made by Werner on that day for a function. It's not on the menu at all.

It's Hungarian goulash served with hand made pasta.

Here comes the ~~cake~~ pig cutting bit..

Oh, i just realised those piccies are with Carmen.

Werner was super nice, he sent his nephew (bless the man!) Andre to help me officiate the piglet cutting. Men, quick quick pass me those piccies as soon as you get back from Japan k?

For the meantime, let's just enjoy the suckling piglet.

Expression: Combination of - mildly stoned + very surprised

Hmm..i wish for.. ***** * **** ***

Love the lil piglet. It's now living happily on my desk. :)

Thanks gals! Love you all. muahhh

What? Mrs Edward Cullen? Who wrote that? Better own up. :P

Heaps of Topshop vouchers for me to spend. Woohooo. *grin*

We adjourned for drinks at Werner's opposite. We've always love the music and ambience here.

What's more? Each alcoholic drinks we ordered gave us a free tapas dish. Fantastic deal man!

I love their rose champagne sangria. It's yummilicious.

Thank you ppl!

From Theresa babe...
A pair of earrings + necklace set from Diva and a vintage leaf motives earrings from Opia (Spain).

From Joanne..

A jar of lovingly folded stars in a bling bling studded jar.

From my best friend, San.

I received this from Mich who just got back from Melby. Mich, Shukz and I caught up last Sunday @ La Bodega for updates and to 'nurse my wounds'. Thanks gals. Esp Shukz, thanks for staying with me, I really enjoyed our foot reflexology session at Morino Kaze. I really needed that girly chat.

San, these earrings are super classy la. Love it!
*sorry, the photos aint doing the earrings any justice. They are heaps shinier*

From Alice and Reena

Sweet Temptation lip glosses in the shape of cupcakes. L-R: Choc, Strawberry, Vanilla.

Oh, that's not a lollipop by the way, it's a lolly soap bar. :p

Thank you everyone, me loves you long time! ;)

My darling Jazz

2009-04-24T23:23:00.002+08:00

My trip to Malacca at the end of March was a jolly good one.

Though Chef and I only spent a short time there, i thought it was well worth it.

I got to meet up with Tiff and Jazz, and I also managed to eat my fave Chung Wah chicken rice balls as well as the to-die-for gula melaka cendol.

As I'm writing this, i'd just like to update everyone that Chef and I are no longer together. We've ended our relationship and have gone our separate ways.

I'm sorry that it ended ....

You ask, "why?"

My answer, "It's for the better. We've tried but it just doesn't work out. Better now than later".

There's just no other way for the both of us.

It was mutual, and we are still friends.

Chef, thank you for everything.

And to my dearest friends, thanks for being there to make me see the light. Thank you for your support and listening ears.

I love you gals.

Moving on...

Please indulge in some of Jazzlyn's latest piccies. She is just so so adorable.

Jazz, kaima loves you! *muakisses*

Jazz walked into the cafe in Equatorial hotel holding a bouquet of flowers. Her first line was, "Kaima, gei ni de" ("these are for you kaima" - in Mandarin).

I was so impressed..Tiffany taught her how to converse in Mandarin so well that if you happen to not see her but only hear her voice, you'll think that she's just another Chinese girl.

She kept looking out the window, pointing to the fountain. Tiff said she wanted to play in the pool.

After a while, she warmed up to me and chef. That's when she started making funny faces. Kawai desu ne!

Grr..hear me roar!

This is such a lovely picture. Like mother, like daughter.

Jazz with her mama and kaima :)

Tiff, I'm so glad that we managed to steal some more together time when you agreed to follow us back to KL to meet up with Miko and friends.

Can't wait to meet up again!

Love you both!

All cried out

2009-04-19T00:46:00.004+08:00

I've cried so much the last week, that i'm out of tears.

Sigh, how do you tell someone that you're no longer happy?

Pre-birthday

2009-04-17T23:37:00.009+08:00

Just wanna say a big thank you to those of you who remembered...

I'm in fact very touched, especially when my first pressie arrived sometime in mid March, almost a month before the actual day.

Dora and Kouk Wai was in KL for a short period. Due to busyness on both sides, we didn't manage to catch up.

This is what they passed to YY to pass to me.

Choya umeshu and this relaxing hibiscus rosella bath infusion which they got from a very popular Japanese massage parlour in Sukhumvit, Bkk.

From Tiff and Jazz.

Tiff was so sweet, she got me this cupcake 'bake n take' carrycase so that i dont
have to go through the hassle of making those lil cupcake holders myself.

She also bought me a mini mannequin to hold my accessories.

Jazz presented me with a bouquet of carnations. To be honest, this is the very first time i ever received carnations...it's so different being a kaima. In all my life, i've received roses, lilies, gerberas, tulips, sunflowers, etc..but never carnations. The feeling is so weird...it's as if i'm turning into a mum. *time for reality check*

From Sue-Ann who just came back from London a couple of days ago. Boy, she knows i adore H & M stuff.

Thursday, 16 April 2009

Dinner with ex-colleagues from T*ylor's

With Lauren and Theresa @ Sushi Zanmai

Followed by drinks @ Coco Banana

Last year, I had dinner and drinks @ Flam's with Theresa and Rahul. Flam's now Coco Banana, but seriously the food selection is so bad that we decided to go Sushi Zanmai for dinner before coming back for some booze.

Guys, i miss our usual happy hours @ Barcelona. Those were truly highlights of our T*ylor's time la. I will forever treasure those happy memories.

With JJ, Chris, and Theresa....and the beer tower.
Friday, 17 April 2009

Lunch with colleague

Had our fave desserts from Snowflakes, this quaint lil Taiwanese desserts place in SS15. They have the yummiest glass jelly with taro balls (very springy and chewy).

Joanne - she's a true heroine in my eyes. I can never have the kind of passion she has
when it comes to human rights and community services. She is one helluva activist! *hats off to you Jo*

Sorry for the lousy picture quality, took it using a phone.

Both are Snowflakes bestseller!

I had a bowl of Snowflake's bestseller glass jelly (cincau) with taro balls. Underneath the jelly, there are heaps of glass jelly flavoured crushed ice. One bite and I was hooked. There was an explosion of glass jelly flavour in every bite. Hmm..not forgetting the yummilicious taro and sweet potato balls.

Jo had the Snowflake's bestseller glass jelly frozzies. See the top black-ish layer? That's the glass jelly, and those crushed ice are cincau flavoured too. Very similar to mine, just that hers is in a more liquid form..and without the taro balls.

Confession: We had these last week.

I tried the taufu fa, and Jo had the bestseller.

Friday, 17 April
Dinner with ex-colleague from TOA

Chong Sern brought me to Pasta de Gohan as i mentioned that i wanted to eat pasta and we weren't keen to go Italiannies but yet we wanted to eat in Pyramid.

I was spoilt for choices and was really indecisive thinking of what do order. Though i was really hungry, i couldnt make up my mind. The menu was rather extensive.

Finally decided on a cream base pasta with prawn, basil and egg yolk while CS had the wafu base pasta with tuna and corn.

After a long and stressful week at work. TGIF! :p

I like their fried potato with cheese sauce and tofu & tomato with cheese sauce (i dun think it's cheese sauce, but hey this is the name..)

It's gonna be 12am soon..and as usual, as soon as the clock strikes 12, my family will bring in the cake and we'll sing the birthday song and do the usual cake cutting..

I'd better get off soon then. :)

Just wanna thank those of you who couldn't make it and to those of you who tried to make plans with me in advance. You know who you are, and you know that i looooooove you guys.

Muahhh...

xoxo

Carrie

Letting go ...and letting God

2009-04-11T07:13:00.001+08:00

Last night during the Good Friday service, something in me snapped.

I've realised and accepted the fact that I shouldn't have tried to take control of situations beyond my control. It's time to rest and let go.

Sigh, holding on to it has been a very exhaustive process.

~*~*~*Psa 23*~*~*~

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not be in want (I lack nothing)
He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters
He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

*******

It feels so good to not struggle anymore....aaah..finally..

From today onwards, I shall let go..and let God!

Amen!

Out and about

2009-04-06T07:01:00.001+08:00

Sorry guys I've been away for a while...

The weekend before last, Chef and I headed down south to Malacca to meet up with Tiffany and Jazz. They were up from Melby to S'pore and Malacca for a month - to visit relatives and friends.

This annual get-together with my kailui Jazz and Tiff is something I look forward to every year.

It's amazing how much Jazz has grown. She's now a little lady, no longer the baby gal i saw last year.

And ooh..she speaks Mandarin so well. In fact, if you are not looking at her, you'll think that she's a local speaking Mandarin. However, most ppl find it fascinating to see a 'kwai mui' speak Mandarin so well. :) Kai ma is so proud of you Jazz.

A few days after Malacca, we headed off to sunny Bangkok. Chef made me proud when he accompanied me to shop for 3 hrs in a row, when i initially thought of asking him to have a coffee and wait for me at Starbucks or Black Canyon. All without complaining too! :)

Pix coming soon i hope.. :)

Till then..have a fabulous week ahead!

love,

Carrie

Chef's birthday

2009-03-26T23:24:00.002+08:00

Celebrated Chef's birthday with him on Monday night.

Well, we had a very simple dinner at Jyu Raku.

To those who are familiar with Rakuzen (Subang), this is actually the very same place, just that it's been given a face lift and a new name.

According to the staff, the chef has bought over the restaurant from his former boss. In fact, most of the staff from the old Rakuzen remained in Jyu Raku.

Ironically, Rakuzen's boss then re-opened Rakuzen just next door (yups, right next door) - which can be quite confusing seeing that most of us only recognise the deco (of which, both Jyu Raku and Rakuzen have similar front facade).

My dilemma was, "do we stick with Rakuzen? or do we try out the new place?"

Chef's answer was pretty straight forward, "We should always follow the chef..not the restaurant. Especially so if we like his food".

True true.

The chef + the princess

This hand gesture reminds me of a kungfu master, somehow.

Something to whet our appetite...

Salmon salada and ebi ten roll

Steak course

Cha soba (cold green tea buckwheat noodles)

Happy birthday Chef! ;)

xoxo

Mon's belated birthday

2009-03-21T23:45:00.001+08:00

I only managed to celebrate with Mon and the gals for her bday a week after the actual.

Mon celebrated the actual day (14 March) with Men and Cindy in Colmar Tropicale (Bukit Tinggi). I couldn't go cos of last minute work commitment. Truly sorry Mon. :(

Gals, i can't believe i missed all the fun..especially after hearing about all your artistic exploits/adventures. :P

~*Back to the dinner*~

We went to Cubes in Jaya One.

Heard that their aromatic duck is a must try as it's similar to the crispy duck in London (oooh how i miss the duck from 4 seasons restaurant! *drool drool*)

We ordered a 1/4 duck to share.

The waitress graciously helped us to shred the duck into bite-size pieces.

Yups, this is good stuff. Next time, we're gonna order less dishes and have more duck instead. :)

For appetizer, we had their special of the day..fried 'mei yan yue' (translation: mermaid). I reckon the 'mei yan yue' is similar to white bait/anchovies. Goes well with beer.

To be honest, we had no idea what to expect when the waitress recommended us to try their fried 'mei yan yue'.

Stir fried vege.

The boss said that he hasn't come up with a name for this spare rib dish yet. This is because the kitchen is coming up with new dishes faster than he can imagine.

In cantonese, this is called 'Yat Chi Kuat' (A piece of bone). But this 'Yat Chi Kuat' is marinated with a dash of Lea Perrins sauce so it taste neither Chinese or Kwailo.

3 style steamed egg.

This looks very home-cooked ya.

Complimentary fermented dragon fruit drink. For Carmen, this stuff is lethal man. Last time she had it, she got high within minutes. Guess she's allergic to anything that's brewed/fermented.

Us gals after din din

Can you see the curls? Nah!

I actually went to Gibson's for digital perm last Sunday. But I guess the curls didn't jadi as my has been permed and rebonded many times. According to Gibson, the chemicals have broken and rebonded my hair structure so many times that it's pretty fragile.

I'm gonna let it rest for a while before i get another perm. Will go back to Gibson's sometime in mid April. :)

We adjourned to Brussels for drinks.

Mon and I had 1 pint of Hoegaarden each. We love Hoegaarden. Or rather we love their glasses. :P

Men is not much of a beer drinker. So she had 1/2 pint for trial.

Our glasses look like giants compared to hers!

Mine mine mine!

It was a really fun night.

We have officially tackled one of our dares for 2009.

At the beginning of the year, we came up with a couple of 'dares' or 'to-do' for 2009 instead of resolutions.

We kickstarted our very 1st dare that night.
Not gonna tell you what it is..But I have our very brave birthday gal, Mon to thank. :) She's proven her friendship in the finest form that night.

Mon, you go gal! Stay fabulous as always woman! Loooovve you! xxx

Oh so Lame!

2009-03-20T07:11:00.002+08:00

Pick up lines these days can be so cheesy and lame (oh, since when are they not anyway?!).

Bamboo9 in Plaza TTDI is now the frequent hang out place for me and some of Chef’s friends, M* and CR*. Both M* and CR* are very fun and crazy women to hang out with.

And since we’re there like almost every week (on either Wed/Thu/Fri) we’ve made a couple of friends with some of the regulars there, namely K*, T* and their mates.

Last night was just another one of those nights. M* has invited her cousin (and his friends), 2 doctors, and informed K* and T* that we’ll be going to Bamboo9. As usual, our table was covered with booze, a bottomless one to boot.

What I found really funny was that there’s this rather cheesy pick up line which the guys employ, thinking that they’re actually flattering us without trying too hard.

So wrong.

T* said these lines to me a couple of times throughout the night.

T: Carrie, what perfume are you using? I love the smell on it (T proceeded to come very close to me, attempting to smell my neck, with me backing away)
C: Ughh..I’ve been here since 9pm and I’ve been drinking since then..i suppose it’s the beer. Here, you can try it too..i bet you’ll smell even nicer than me (me attempting to pour beer on him :P).

Sometime later..

T: Carrie, I really love the way you smell. What do you use la?
C: It’s ciggy smell la T* :p (Me thinking that his flattery won’t go anywhere. And I didn’t feel like telling him that it was Pleasures Delight).

Before leaving, while saying bye to T*, he came over to me, saying that he wanted to smell me one last time, so that he could download the smell into the hard disk in his memory.

How lame is that?

Anyway, while we were leaving both M* and CR* were bitching about how lame the doctors were. They both were also complimented on the way they smelled by the dodgy doctors.

One doctor told M* that she smells really good and other stuff which I can’t remember now cos I was having a headache by the time we were leaving.

The same doctor leaned very close to CR* and asked her, “Are you wearing the same perfume as last time? Gucci? Mmmm”.

The other one, well, I’m not gonna indulge you with too much info..let’s just say he’s dodgy la. And not so original.

No wonder they’re both still single. And so desperate.
We have since removed them from our list. :P

All in, I think we’ve got at least 4-5 different guys using the “you smell good” pick up line.

A bit sad and unoriginal, don’t you think?

Guys, if you’re reading this…can you pleeeeeeease improvise?

Hello Kitty Wild!

2009-03-15T22:49:00.006+08:00

Meow!

Great news to M.A.C devotees and Hello Kitty fans out there. :)

A lot of you would have sussed out that MAC cosmestics has collaborated with Sanrio to create an explosion of colourful, sassy, fun, and kawai collection. ;)

i love Hello Kitty, always have! :) Meooww...

Ooh..i just can't wait to get my ass to a MAC counter soon...

I was reading InStyle mag today and the good news is this...

InStyle readers have a chance to win MAC Hello Kitty inspired Tibi dress and heaps of other MAC goodies...

The contest runs from February 19th 2009 to March 31st 2009. You ‘ve got plenty of time to join the contest!

Don't you love meow this Tibi dress?

The not-so-good news? Only residents of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Korea, Japan, United Kingdom and the United States are eligible to join. :(

“Play everyday with MAC Hello Kitty”

Can't wait to grab some kittens back...can't wait!