Tailor Made Bridesmaid dress

Finally. After a month of waiting. With only a week left to Yim's wedding. My custom made bridesmaid dress is DONE!

Well, one thing I learnt: if you ever want to duplicate any design to the T, the best way would be to buy it. However, if you are willing to set aside some allowance of change and take some risk, it may turn out really fun and fruitful.

Here was what I wanted, an ASOS dress:

And after much laborious hours (no kidding!) poring over the tiny photos on my iphone, Li Hwa bravely took on the challenge. And here is the result.

During the first fitting, I got Li Hwa to cut down the ruffles and MOST importantly, take out the bust padding and tapered the bust area down.

And after a lengthy discussion with Li Hwa and another of her client (a very nice British lady who gave me great tips to keep warm in London) who happened to drop by, we decided to forgo the belt.

I am a little hesitant about the result. I love the cut and Li Hwa is FABULOUS in her craftsmanship. It is just too.......bright! I am used to wearing much darker hue. Shiny Gold is certainly new to me!

But all in all, though the dress did not turned out exactly how I wanted but it was skillfully constructed and it fits me like a glove. I know I will find the occasion to wear it again and therefore, effectively amortizing the premium dollars I paid. Hee.. dollars well spent!

Separation Anxiety and Blog direction

There was nothing new to the scene: me unable to hide my squeals of joy as I bounced towards Yong at the arrival hall.

But something rather new has transpired in the preceding week.

For the first time, I had separation anxiety. Being away from my hubby.

It is kind of funny because when we started living together and he left for the first of his many trips this year, I wondered why I did not feel what many of my colleagues complained – that they could not sleep well when their husbands are out of town. Then, I was more than happy to have the house to myself. Weekdays night and weekends were packed with activities. Life was no difference from before. And I thought to myself: what is the big deal in living together and being married?

Then he left for another trip last week and wham! I turned into a whiny melodramatic wife pining for his return. My nights were restless with thoughts of him. My days were punctured with daydreams of what I will do to him when he is back *wink*. His absence was very very much felt.

Don’t get me wrong. I did miss him genuinely in the past. But it was more intense this time. Liked a piece of me is gone and I felt incomplete and inadequate without him.

If at this point, you are staring in disgust at the screen, be comforted. For the exceedingly mushy outpour of affection will stop here. Hee..

It has been a difficult few weeks for him and my in laws, worried sick every minute. But despite that, I am heartened and touched. For I have never seen a family this strong and united. So filled with love and encouragement for each other. There was times I was moved to tears by their virtues and my good fortune to be married to this wonderful family.

Which brings me to the next point.

This blog has been about the journey of becoming a Mrs. And now that I am, I thought about the direction of the blog. The recent episode taught me that there is so much more about being a mrs, a wife, the significant other. The meaning behind the vow. And the joy of experiencing that growth.

With all wedding stuff long done, this blog will continue its core theme – Marriage life. It will carry on the documentation of building a home with Yong. This blog will showcase the collection of my fav home décor looks, DIY crafty projects and hopefully, successful bakery attempts.

Not forgetting, the medley of my occasional melodrama.

On top of that, it will also include the assembly of things I am crazy about; cute clothes, yummy food, spicy salsa (I mean the dance), music, travel, etc 

While I am no means of an expert in ANY of the above, I am in constant awe of the talented people behind them.

And I hope you will get the same joy i feel when admiring these things I consider beautiful. :)

Lovely poem from Mary Oliver

Through the two years of forced psycho-analysis of every single sentence from my O Level English literature books , I came to respect the art without fully understanding it.

Over the years, I came to realise the beauty and importance of literature in everyday life.

The joy of reading a beautifully written passage.

The ecstasy of comprehending the wicked humour in limerick.

Ahh.. the power of words..

Nonetheless I am still far from an avid fan of literature & poetry. This is coming from someone who spent her last hour in Louvre museum counting p*ahem* parts out of boredom. Hardly an artsy person ya? ;P I was therefore surprised to be arrested by this following poem.

It took my breathe away. For a while, I floated away into the meadow, pondering what to do with my one wild precious life...

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life? 

- Quoted from Poetry 180

A blog I stalk lately - The bitter stickgirl

I know I know.. I am so slow in discovering this lil cute blog.. but better late than never!

God, I wish I have her creativity! My gal friends and me had so much fun laughing over her drawings. I love her answers to FAQ. Such a pity she is no longer updating her blog. Prob will buy her lil book. Must support such a talented gal!

My favorite drawings from her site:

A girl's nightmare

Drawings from The Bitter Stickgirl

A girl's ultimate nightmare

Drawings from The Bitter Stickgirl

So aptly summarize my july ordeal.. Heheh...

Art wall - Status: WIP

Been visiting Bras Basah Complex. Not only it is the home to TCM books I have taken an interests in lately, but also electronic guitars for Yong and most importantly craft supplies haven for the home decor projects we have very (VERY) slowly embarked on.

Here is the first project we are doing: filling up the big blank wall at dining area. Here is what our dining room was before:

Lotsa big blank walls ya?

And remember my Amelia Kay photos I bought from Etsy? We got hold of some really old frames, stripped them apart, some DIY matting (thanks to amazing Yong and his lovely 一双巧手 as he likes to call them) and wala.. they look as good as the new Ikea frames we got for Carrie Chau's series.

And for the loooongest time, my mum complained that she had to peer at the tiny door gift clock since we took our own sweet time (half a year to be exact!) in getting a proper wall clock. We finally got down buying one from Molecule that is not outrageously overpriced (well, in the end, we still felt it was as we stared in disgust at the "MADE IN CHINA" tag on the packaging).

It is still very much work in progress. Two more old frames to fill. We are thinking of using some wedding photos that are not the in your face kind of wedding photos so it fits in the theme or shop from Etsy.

We will see.

Photos time!

As you can see, alot to improve on but we are happy with whatever progress (and fun!) we have so far. Wish us luck in getting the two new photos!

Dog sitting is no joke

Took care of the two doggies while In laws are away on trip.

They say taking care of dog is nothing compared to a baby. But we had a sense of how it would be like to be parents during the week. Schedules work around the twice daily walks and mealtimes. Rushing through our dinners so we can get to them earlier. Waking up early so we can prepare their meal. Breaking up fights when they do not get along (very often!).

Awwww....

How to stay mad with them when they chewed off every thing they can touch, refuse to let us sleep in, bark nonstop in the middle of the night?

Cute to the max.

Tips on managing (hormonal) Acne outbreak - Part II

Okay, after an intensive round of research on the net and speaking to different doctors, dermatologist and beauticians, (god, I sound like the research analyst from my company already) I have concluded on a few of things:

• Doctors and Dermatologists are as clueless as you and I on the topics. Either that or they have no solutions after all. Well, correction, they do. Do you want to get pregnant? No? Here is your accutane. Yes? May god help you and pray for the best. Okay, they didn’t say that. But they would ignore your questions, stare intensively at your records and announce solemnly that you need to be long courses of antibiotics. MONTHS of antibiotics.

• My beauticians from Leonard drake are even more helpless. They rotated long stares between my impossible number of whiteheads and my wedding date on the calendar and then proclaimed my condition to be hormonal. *Surprise surprise* And that I should really see a doctor. *what am I doing here with you then??* But they did keep me from having a disastrous acne riddled wedding. For that I shall give them wee bit of credit.

• As I went along the terrible month, stories of hormonal acne sufferers streamed in. First it was Yong’s uncle’s sister’s …… (I never figured who exactly) ….’s sister in law who had hormonal acne outbreak BEFORE the wedding.And after tearful rounds of talks with Doris (owner of the hydratherapy spa), I learned she went through the same thing but in worse way since she was also the principal of a beauty school. Flowerpod is filled with stories in the line of “I always had clear skin then all hell broke loose”. My boss struggled with this after her pregnancy. Etc etc etc.. It felt good knowing that I was not alone. As Joy (my curent beautician from Franz de Paris) aptly summarized it – every ten years, our body changes. You may develop an allergy you never had. Pregnancy may change your body forever. An extra stressful or emotionally charged period may trigger (often negative) responses and changes to the body. I know how futile this sound if you are in a middle of a outbreak but the truth is, it is a phase. Something that will come and GO away. Once the changes settle, your body will find its way back to equilibrium. Yes, it will. Once we stop panicking and stop focusing on the problem. Will talk about this in a while.

• Nonetheless, it was hard to maintain a happy composure with a swollen face, bouts of throbbing pain and pus/blood oozing out every time I wash my face (gross I know but I am not exaggerating!). I seriously needed help to get out of the depressing rut. But…

• Antibiotics did not helped. Antibiotics in simple terms prevents inflammation and infection of wounds. It helped at first when it was just whiteheads. But did not do any bit to retain the spread of the acne. And it seriously screwed up my digestive system.

• Facial at Leonard Drake did not helped. LD beautician was not skilled enough to clear the headless whiteheads. After much futile (and extremely painful) facials, they declare me a “must see doctor” customer.

• TCM probably would help. But I did not give it time to realize the benefits. I was popping too many antibiotics to maintain the 2 hours gap between TCM and western medicine rule. And I went with antibiotics. Nevertheless, TCM works because for the two weeks I took TCM solely, my digestive system never felt better and my insomnia improved tremendously. Sleepless nights were reduced from every other night to only once a week. And I am sure I would be completely cured of insomnia if I carried on.

• Hydrotherapy helped but not fast and significant enough. It did contained and flattened some of the acne after a week of intensive spa (once to twice a day). But liked TCM, it is meant for overall health and wellness. Oh I have to mention how it completely cured my insomnia. After switching over to antibiotics, I still had trouble sleeping at least once a week. But after a few session of hydrotherapy, I felt calmer and more relaxed. And since then *touch wood* I have been sleeping like a baby every night.

As mentioned earlier the real improvement came when Joy came to my rescue. She swiftly and meticulously purged every single nasty pus filled acne and as she often says, it is necessary to plug out the “root” of the acne. If not, you will end up with the acne appearing over and over again at the same spot. Unfortunately, if the squeezing of the acne is done inappropriately, it will definitely spread to the neighboring pores and goes on the speedy voyage of conquering your face.


The rapid clearing of the ugly bumps on my face improved my mood EXPONENTIALLY. And this in turn had a positive effect on my mental and emotional well-being. I stopped looking woefully at the mirror every ten minutes, enjoyed baking instead of just doing it as a distraction, took interests in events around me, noticed that the colors of trees, plants and flowers are actually not in monochrome.. .. .. you get the idea.


So if you ask me what is the solution to my hormonal acne. It is a combination of:

1. An experienced beautician  
2. Hydrotherapy or TCM or any kind of holistic treatment to bring your body back to balance and most importantly
3. RELAX and Distract

There are a whole range of hormonal medications out there e.g. birth control pills, which aim to introduce artificial hormones into your body since it is not capable of producing sufficiently. But we all know about the side effects of that. Especially post medication. Therefore I am an advocate for a more natural remedy. But pair it with a good beautician to keep your sanity.

I am currently on TCM, back on running every week and started taking daily multi vits. And in God’s mysterious way of doing things, my weekends had been packed to the brim with baby showers, family and friends visits, plays (vlee conference was fantastic!), bday celebrations and hardly any time to muse over my acne any more.


I am going on to scar and mark treatment soon with Joy. Prob concurrently with Leonard Drake. While I have lost faith in them for healing acne, I will probably go back for scar treatment. After all, they did take care of my skin well for the last 3 years. And, well, I do have quite a number of LD facials left unused!

In time to come, I will probably do another post on my progress. Stay tuned.