Slowly coming together..

One of the biggest festivities for the Chinese is definitely the Lunar New Year.  We’ve missed celebrating it last year when we were in Geneva which we ended up going to Istanbul instead.  ;p  Now that we are back, there will be lots to do.

First of which, is spring-cleaning – throwing out the old and bringing in the new.  Then there is decorating of the loft.  No garish potted plants for me if I can help it.  Instead, I dressed up the loft with these florals (thanks to massive help by one of the musketeers) that are pleasing to the eye.

And that my friends, are the token florals that I’m pretty much pleased to go with for the loft.  Have a great one decking up your place to usher in the year of the Snake.

Florals

Arranging florals in the loft has been one of my fave past-times but I haven’t had time to indulge in it for a long while ever since going back to work.  I had grand plans wanting to dress our place up with florals for the upcoming Chinese New Year but realised that I don’t even have time to spring-clean.  Yikes!  Am I really that busy?  Maybe?  But I think I’m just really good at procrastinating. 

So what’s going to happen to the loft this New Year? Let’s see how I’m gonna pull it off.

So this is Christmas…

Nothing fancy.  Just a simple home-cooked meal spent with my loved ones – the Man and the fur-kid.  With no plans in place, we scrambled to put together a meal.  I had no time to go to get festive florals, so I did the best I could to decorate the table as Christmassy as I possibly could.

Don’t think I did too bad putting together the setting for our dinner.  Thank goodness for candles and tea-lights that I stocked up plus the Christmas napkins that Mom gave me, they certainly came in handy.  Phew!

Made a simple meal – Truffle Butter Roast Chicken, some Roast Veggies and these awesome Stuffed Mushrooms.  Thanks to Lavishley who shared the recipes!

The Man also threw in one of my fave white Burgundy wines while waiting for the bird to be roasted and we have a winner this Christmas!    I’m easy to please.  Hehe..

And the birdie does look pretty fine yeah?  It tasted really good too!  Truffle butter stuffed in between the skin of chicken make the skin really crispy.  I usually discard the skin but I didn’t for this.  The Man perfected roasting chicken as well for this bird came out just right.  Not too dry but the meat was moist, juicy and tender.  Yums!

And what do we have here?  Though he couldn’t part-take in the feasting, he did try to join in the fun.  The Christmas carols we played in the background must have put him to sleep.  I’m pretty certain he’s dreaming of fish and bones to the tunes of ‘Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas!’  I’m so pleased that we are back in Singers this Christmas.  Despite missing rolling in the snow, nothing beats spending time with the fur-kid!

I hope that you are having a splendid time ushering Christmas! From our little family to yours, have yourself a wonderful Christmas and a great start to the new year!

Organising 101: Making sense of chaos

See that long white table there?  That used to be my dressing table.  It used to be clutter-free but obviously, that has changed.

It now looks like this – housing some of my prized possessions, along with a couple of prints and knick-knacks on the dresser.

The latest addition to my dresser is of course the glass pedestal and dome stand which was a recent purchase from Pottery Barn.  They finally ship to Singapore now!  Yippee!  Aside from using as a display for sweets, this stand also comes in handy to display my arm candy.  I featured the glass jar previously.  Don’t trash those pretty ribbons that you may have received when you purchase the item.  It just may come handy.  In my case, I threw a couple into the glass jars to create more colour into the mix.

And over on the other corner, we have my beauty corner where all my perfumes and cosmetics are displayed or cleverly disguised in a quirky box.

So how does your dresser look?  Neat or as chaotic as mine? ;p

Updates will be a little slower for the next week or so.  Work has taken over my life for now, but I’m really excited about one new project for the blog.  So, stick around won’t you?

completed!

I’m finally done with 10 lessons of the floral basic design course at Nobleman!!  Pretty pleased with learning the basics and trying my best to get the fundamentals rights.  This was the vertical floral arrangement which I learned today.  I love the structure but not the type of florals used in the arrangement.   If I had to do this again next time, maybe I’ll experiment with other types of florals.

Now that this is over.. what next?  I’m thinking of attempting the Lifestyle Floral Design course.  Still thinking, so stay tuned to see if I eventually do go on to round 2.

Related articles

• Florals (j0annesim.wordpress.com)

Going wild

I really liked what I saw when I sat at my table prepping for my floral arrangement lesson this week.  2 more lessons to go and I would have completed my basic floral design course.  Yippee!!

One of the things I miss about not working is having the flexibility during the day to indulge in my various hobbies.  But well, there is always a trade-off I guess.  Looking forward to weekend and adding this to the long list of other things-to-do.

This week, I learned the vertical arrangement.  I actually liked it and if you think it was easy, it wasn’t.  As with all the previous designs, there actually is a technique to arranging this.  I loved how it turned out – wild, but in harmony with nature.  What do you think?

Related articles

• Florals (j0annesim.wordpress.com)

Florals

It’s been a while since I last updated what I’ve learnt at my floral arrangement class.  After taking close to a 4-week break, I’ve finally made some time over the weekend to resume classes.  Learnt how to arrange pink roses with cream eustomas in a cone-shaped arrangement.  Not totally leaving this style but I guess it’s useful if I have a tall vase to place the arrangement on.  What do you think?